National Council on Disability on Hurricane Katrina Affected Areas 

September 2, 2005 

Basic Info 

People with disabilities in the Gulf Coast areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana 

are experiencing tremendous loss of life and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. 

Current data indicates that people with disabilities are now most at risk in this situation—

and will need recovery assistance for months or years. A disproportionate number of the 

Hurricane survivors are people with disabilities whose needs for basic necessities are 

compounded by chronic health conditions and functional impairments. 

For example: 

In Biloxi, Mississippi, a city of about 50,000 people, 26 percent of residents are people 

with disabilities. This means that there are 10,700 people with disabilities 5 years of age 

and older who live in Biloxi. 

In Mobile, Alabama, a city of 198,915 people, 24 percent of the residents are people with 

disabilities. This means that there are 43,000 people with disabilities 5 years of age and 

older who live in Mobile. 

In New Orleans, a city of about 484,000 people, 23.2 percent of residents are people with 

disabilities. This means that there are 102,122 people with disabilities 5 years of age and 

older who live in New Orleans. 

Who are the 102,122 people with disabilities who live in New Orleans? About 10 percent 

(or 12,000) of them are people ages 5 to 20 years old; 61 percent (or 63,000) of them are 

aged 21 to 64 years old; and 29 percent (or 27,000) of the people are 65 years of age and 

older. 

The 102,122 people with disabilities living in New Orleans include people who are blind, 

people who are deaf, people who use wheelchairs, canes, walkers, crutches, people with 

service animals, and people with mental health needs. At least half of the people with 

disabilities in New Orleans who are of working age are not employed. Many of the 

people rely on a variety of government programs such as Supplemental Security Income 

and Medicaid to help them meet their daily service and support needs. 

Implications 

The total destruction of the physical environment and public/private infrastructure and 

communications systems in the Gulf Coastal areas affected by Hurricane Katrina has lifethreatening implications for all citizens with disabilities, and those without disabilities. 

The implications for these people include: 
• for people with physical disabilities and who are over 65 years of age, being 

unable to leave their homes, group homes, nursing homes, hospitals without 

significant assistance; 

• for all people with disabilities, being prevented from using any type of 

accessible public transportation which in all likelihood do not exist anymore; 

• for people who are blind, being unable to even get around in their own 

flooded neighborhoods because they can no longer navigate the environmental 

landscape; 

• for all people with disabilities driven by floods from institutions or group 

homes or nursing homes, needing to be housed in less than satisfactory 

conditions with considerably less than the necessary range of services and 

supports they need for an indeterminate amount of time; 

• for people with disabilities who have service animals, are unable to rely on 

those animals outside of the house or group home because these animals 

cannot navigate safely in the flooded streets; 

• for people who are deaf, being challenged to access emergency information 

through television, radio, TTY, etc. because public communications systems 

are somewhat compromised; 

• for all people with disabilities, being unable to secure life-saving food and 

water because many of them are trapped within the confines of inadequate 

supplied shelters, stadiums, etc.; and 

• people may have lost or become separated from the drugs they rely on daily 

for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic ailments. Pharmacies in the 

affected areas may have insufficient stocks of vital drugs like insulin for 

diabetics, creating a need to organize efforts to import and distribute essential 

medicines in the area. In addition, many pharmacies have been raided by 

looters. 

Where to go for help? 

People with disabilities affected by Hurricane Katrina should try to contact their local 

emergency response officials by using the 9-1-1 system. This system will handle voice 

and TTY callers. 

Louisiana government officials advise that in addition to the existing special needs 

shelters that have opened in Alexandria and Monroe, shelters have been opened in two 

other communities in Louisiana. These shelters are staffed by the Department of Health 

and Hospitals and Department of Social Services. While these shelters are open it is 

strongly encouraged that citizens first try to evacuate to the north with their families and 

get out of harm’s way. These are shelters of last resort and are not for the general public. 

At 10:00 am this morning, an additional shelter was opened in Lafayette. At this time, 

special needs shelters have been opened in Alexandria, Monroe, Lafayette, and Baton 

Rouge. Due to the uncertainty of the damage that Baton Rouge and Lafayette will sustain 

from the storm, DHH officials stress that it is very important to move to a shelter further 

north in Alexandria or Monroe if at all possible. 
Special Needs Shelters are designed for individuals who are homebound, chronically ill 

or who have disabilities and are in need of medical or nursing care, and have no other 

place to receive care. 

Those seeking shelter will be screened by nurses to determine the level of care needed. 

Only people who meet admission criteria can be sheltered. If their condition is too 

critical, they will be referred to a hospital for sheltering, or admission. If their condition is 

not severe enough for Special Needs Sheltering, they will be referred to a general shelter. 

Special triage telephone lines are being established in each region to accept the calls of 

citizens seeking special needs sheltering. Citizens with special needs seeking shelter must 

call telephone number in their area BEFORE attempting to access a shelter. These 

numbers are listed below. 

Alexandria: 800-841-5778 Shreveport: 800-841-5776 

Baton Rouge: 800-349-1372 Monroe: 866-280-7287 

Houma/Thibodaux: 800-228-9409 Slidell/Hammond: 866-280-7724 

Lafayette: 800-901-3210 

Lake Charles: 866-280-2711 

Special Needs Shelters are not designed for the general public or for nursing home 

patients. Nursing homes in Louisiana are required to have emergency evacuation plans in 

place that ensure the health and safety of their residents. In most instances, these plans 

allow for homes in affected areas to transport their patients to nursing homes in areas safe 

from the storm. 

Health officials note that if individuals have health problems that require medical 

expertise and must evacuate, it is best for them to go with family members or caretakers 

north and west to areas that are out of harm’s way. These will provide medical support 

services only. Because of limited staffing, those going to a Special Needs Shelter must 

have a caretaker to assist with ongoing support and they should bring all necessary 

supplies including sheets, blankets and pillows. 

Community And Residential Services Association (CARSA), a trade organization for 

providers of services with developmental disabilities, in cooperation with the ARC of 

Louisiana, the Developmental Disabilities Council and The Advocacy Center, is available 

to assist families who may have relatives who were evacuated from community homes 

and other service programs in the Greater New Orleans area. 

Families seeking information may call the following numbers for assistance: 

CARSA – 225-343-8811 

The ARC of Louisiana – 1-866-966-6261 
Developmental Disabilities Council – 1-800-450-8108 

The Advocacy Center (Baton Rouge) – 1-800-711-1696 

The Advocacy Center (Lafayette) – 1-800-822-0210 

How can we help? 

(This note was distributed by an Independent Living Center) 

Dear IL Colleague, 

As you may know, the Centers for Independent Living in Biloxi, Mississippi and New 

Orleans have been gravely affected by the hurricane. In fact the Biloxi, MS center was 

totally destroyed. Many of you are asking how you can help. Here is what we have 

learned from colleagues in those states. 

Sending money is the first priority. Sending supplies to those centers is helpful too but 

NOT RIGHT NOW, because they can't get through the water. 

Here are the suggested options for right now: 

1) Send a check or credit card payment to the Red Cross and designate it for Hurricane 

Relief, or designate it for people with disabilities in the Biloxi/Hattiesburg or New 

Orleans areas. 

2) If you want to send money for the CILs that are dealing with this disaster directly, here 

are your options: 

For the Biloxi Center, mail the check (payable to LIFE of Central MS and designated for 

the Biloxi Center) to: 

LIFE of Central Mississippi 

754 North President Street, Suite 1 

Jackson, MS 39202 

For the centers in Louisiana (make checks payable to Resources for Independent Living - 

this is a branch of the N.O. center - and designate for the New Orleans center)and mail to: 

Resources for IL 

11931 Industriplex Blvd. Suite 200 

Baton Rouge, LA 70809 

We have also learned from Mack Marsh of the Shreveport Center that centers in 

Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and Lake Charles are assisting evacuees. Mack says they 

would also appreciate supplies if there is any way to get those supplies to the centers. His 
list includes: manual wheelchairs, hospital beds, adult diapers, bed pads, catheters and 

other supplies. The address for the Baton Rouge center is shown above, addresses for the 

Shreveport and Lake Charles centers follow. 

Southwest LA Independence Center, Inc. 

Mitch Granger 

1202 Kirkman, Suite C 

Lake Charles, LA 70601 

New Horizons, Inc. 

Jerry Kidwell 

9300 Mansfield Road, Suite 204 

Shreveport, LA 71118 

Coordinated Federal-State-Local response 

A coordinated Federal Disability Recovery Plan for Hurricane Katrina should be 

immediately developed and implemented. The decisions the Federal Government makes, 

the priority it accords to civil rights, and the methods it adopts to ensure uniformity in the 

ways agencies handle their disability-related responsibilities are likely to be established 

in the early days of this emergency situation and be difficult to change if not set on the 

right course at the outset. This response must include people with disabilities. 

 

An urgent priority is to provide funds and secure resources that specifically meet the 

critical needs of Katrina survivors with disabilities, help to rebuild the organizations that 

serve them, identify accessible temporary and permanent housing and address the specific 

requests being made by leaders in the devastated areas and those in the areas that people 

with disabilities are being evacuated to. At the minimum, this response should include: 

Accessible Disaster Facilities and Services. Communications technology is vital for 

people with disabilities during this disaster to help assess damage, collect information, 

and deploy supplies. Access to appropriate facilities -- housing, beds, toilets, and other 

necessities -- must be monitored and made available to individuals with disabilities 

before, during, and after a disaster. This access also must be ensured for those who incur 

a disability as a result of a disaster. 

Accessible Communications and Assistance. As communications technology and 

policy become more integral to disaster relief and mitigation, providing accessibility to 

the technology for people with disabilities will be life-saving. For example, people with 

hearing impairments require interpreters, TTY communications, and signaling devices. 

People with cognitive impairments, such as those with developmental disabilities, 

Alzheimer's disease, or brain injury, will likely require assistance to cope with hurricaneravaged surroundings and to minimize confusion factors. 

Accessible and Reliable Rescue Communications. Accessible and reliable 

communications technology is critical to ensuring fast, effective, and competent field 

treatment of people with disabilities. Communications technologies can assist field 
personnel in rescue coordination and tracking and can be combined with databases that 

house information on optimal treatment for particular disabilities or that track the 

allocation of post-disaster resources. 

# # # 

Note: The National Council on Disability is an independent federal agency making 

recommendations to the President and Congress to enhance the quality of life for 

Americans with disabilities and their families. 

Mark S. Quigley 

Director of Communications 

National Council on Disability 

1331 F Street, NW, Suite 850 

Washington, DC 20004 

202-272-2008