Before the White House Conference on Aging Select Committee

**Comments on the Disaster Recovery assistance for recipients who are 60
years and older.\
**

By: Leigh E. Wade, Executive Director

Area Agency on Aging for Southwest Florida, Inc.

September 12, 2005

Good afternoon, my name is Leigh Wade. I am the Executive Director for
the Area Agency on Aging for Southwest Florida Inc. Our agency serves a
seven county area consisting of Charlotte, Collier, Desoto, Glades,
Hendry, Lee and Sarasota Counties. I appreciate the opportunity to
provide input regarding disaster recovery assistance provided during the
2004 Hurricane Season.

Several of the counties served by our agency suffered severe damage from
Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Frances, and Hurricane Jeanne. The
aftermath left behind after the storms cleared our area was devastating.
Over 65% of the homes in Desoto County alone received major damage.
Lives were lost, precious memories were taken away forever. The
communities are still struggling a year later to recover from the
devastating blow. But recovery has begun.

I wanted to talk about some of the lessons learned from the hurricanes.
We had a disaster plan prepared to handle the hurricanes when they
descended on our area. We put the disaster plan into operation on
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 -- not believing that the Hurricane would hit
our area. Consumers were called and told about the hurricane brewing in
the Gulf. Consumers had to evacuate their homes more than 24 hours in
advance of the arrival of the storm still believing the storm would
actually hit the Tampa area. Shelf-stable meals were distributed.
Consumers with special needs were moved to a Special Needs Shelter. We
were set for the storm. Then chaos erupted. Hurricane Charley slammed
into the Charlotte county coastline boasting winds in excess of 140
miles an hour. The hospital in Charlotte County was destroyed. The
Emergency Operations Center had to be evacuated in the middle of the
hurricane. Shelters fell apart. People had to move during the hurricane
to a safer location by holding each other's hand, forming a line, and
praying to make it to safety. After surviving the storms, many of the
Special Needs Shelters were closed within days of the Hurricane's
landfall. Finding qualified staff to remain at the Special Needs
Shelters was difficult at best. Consumers were transferred to other
shelters outside the area.

Due to HIPPA regulations and FEMA rules, the caseworkers could not
locate the consumers. Staff working the Special Needs Shelters could not
disclose the new location that housed the consumers after moving them
from the Special Needs Shelters. After locating the consumer at another
shelter, the consumer was moved to another location the very next day.
So, we had to start all over again searching for the consumer. FEMA
cities were opened to house the homeless. Caseworkers were turned away
by FEMA staff due to their rules and regulations. We were aware seniors
resided in the cities but were not allowed to contact them or even
verify with officials that the consumers were actually living in the
trailers. The worst part of the situation was many of the seniors who
had lost their cars, houses, belongings, etc. could not get to the local
store, banks, and other facilities due to lack of transportation. For,
you see, the city was not located on a public transit system.

Many of the trailers were equipped with propane. Some of the seniors
were not trained on using propane. When they seen a lit pilot light,
they turned knobs until the fire went out. This created major problems
for the consumers and the agencies serving the consumers.

Another area of concern is payment for services rendered. Many of the
service organizations that assisted in disaster recovery did not receive
reimbursement for the services they provided until six months later. The
state agencies were working hard on our behalf to secure funding. FEMA
was unwilling to carry through with their promises for funding to
support the services. It will be difficult for us to ask those agencies
to provide services again without guarantee of payment first. If we
could work with the federal agencies to relax some of the stringent
rules covering the federal, state, and local agencies providing the
funding, such as the Administration on Aging, it would allow agencies
like the AoA to send the funds to the state agencies and into the hands
of the service providers much more quickly.

While the government is reviewing responses to the victims in Hurricane
Katrina, I hope they take into consideration some preplanning options.
We would like to have interagency agreements into place that allows us
to get information on where individuals are located. We would also like
to get funds distributed sooner. We would like to have options with
supplies that are distributed.

One other point I would like to share with you is the distribution of
supplies. Do you realize the meals that are being distributed to victims
in the hurricanes with contents that contain 2,500 calories? Seniors
cannot handle two meals in one day with high caloric content such as
those meals being distributed. We also received donations of Ensure.
First of all, we received a semi-tractor trailer loaded with Chocolate
flavored Ensure only. Secondly, the Ensure had an expiration date that
was only two weeks later. Do you know how hard it is to get rid of
Ensure that has expired? While many of the nutrients are ok, Ensure
could not verify that all nutrients were still included in the contents.
It would have been nice to offer our seniors another option too such as
vanilla flavored Ensure or Ensure for diabetics.

Again, thank you for this opportunity to present to you today on some of
the challenges we experienced in the aftermath of Hurricanes Charley,
Frances and Jeanne. I will provide additional written comments to you
for consideration.