I have decided a poor memory and poor vision leading to no driving is a bad combination. Once again what I planned to work on got left at the office. Really thought it was in my bag.
I have been roaming the house, picking things up, doing laundry and filling the dishwasher but we all know keeping house is not my shtick. (Just take a look at this place!) I did bring one file home to work on. Should do it but I have these articles on disaster and the visually impaired that I ran off, so…
Sue redux! Explain to me why I thought I had actually shut up!
Disasters – and this time I am not talking about my housekeeping – and visual impairment are another nasty combination. According to a 2007 American Public Health Association article, eye injuries are very common during and after all kinds of disasters but yet, at least ten years ago, most emergency response teams know very little about managing eye injury and other problems.
I looked for more recent articles saying they had beefed up the eye injury training for first responders in the last ten years. I found nada. That means these people could very well be scrambling to deal with stuff like penetrating eye wounds, chemical exposure and retinal detachment, not to mention infections and other such things with very little training and materials to do the job. And that means, my dears, we with our progressive vision loss condition are on our own. Not that I would not want the guy with the pierced eye ball to go ahead of me in line, mind you. Just saying, we need to expect to be very low priority.
Wisefamilyeye.com – love your logo! – did a page on preparing an eye emergency kit and putting it in your go bag. They suggest spare, impact resistant glasses. I suggest also having a copy of your eyeglass prescription. You might want to store it in drafts in your email so you can access it from anyone’s device. Wisefamilyeye.com also suggested safety goggles and sunglasses, artificial tears and saline solution (you might want to add an eye cup if you have one) and at least two weeks of prescription eye drops.
I already touched on clean-up with my mention of my bout with flood mud crud. Flood water contains EVERYTHING you can think of. Sewer plants and chemical plants cannot get out of the way so everything they contained will come to you. Safety goggles are a must. Protective clothing, such as heavy rubber gloves and thick soled boot if you can find any. And face masks. Face masks are good.
Essentially, disaster preparedness is just that: being prepared. The American Federation of the Blind put together their own checklist. Their list included having emergency numbers nearby and knowing who to call to get yourself evacuated asap. This could be either a buddy, the local authorities or, even better, both. Let people outside of your area know your predicament and that you might be coming to visit!
If you have a service animal – or any animal! – make plans for him or her as well. Reasonably sure evacuation services and shelters must take service animals. They do not have to take pets and rumor has it, many people recently refused to go to shelters rather than leave pets behind. Do not allow yourself or your animals to be in that position.
If recent events are any indication, we can expect to have more (and more?) disasters as time goes on. Be prepared.
September 30th, 2017