United States of America v. Humboldt County, California - Consent Decree

I. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES AND POLICIES

26. The County’s Emergency Operations Plan (“EOP”) must comply with the ADA.  The County will use Chapter 7 of the Department of Justice’s ADA Best Practices Tool Kit for State and Local Government (“ADA Tool Kit”) to address ADA obligations of emergency management, including planning, preparedness, evacuation, shelters, medical and social services, lodging and housing programs, recovery, and rebuilding.

27. Within sixty (60) days of the entry of this Consent Decree, the County will incorporate the provisions of Chapter 7 of the ADA Tool Kit into its EOP and provide a copy (including supporting documents) to the United States.

28. The County’s EOP will include the following:

      a. Procedures to solicit, receive, and use input from people with a variety of disabilities on its emergency management plan (preparation, notification, response, and clean-up).

      b. Community evacuation plans to enable people who have mobility disabilities, are blind or have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, have cognitive disabilities, mental illness, or other disabilities to either safely self-evacuate or be evacuated by others.

      c. If the County’s emergency warning system uses sirens or other audible alerts, then procedures to effectively inform people who are deaf or hard of hearing of an impending disaster.

      d. A requirement that emergency shelters have a back-up generator and a way to keep medications refrigerated (such as a refrigerator or a cooler with ice).  Access to back-up power and refrigeration at such shelters will be made available to people whose disabilities require access to electricity and refrigeration, for example, for using life-sustaining medical devices, providing power to motorized wheelchairs, and preserving certain medications, such as insulin, that require refrigeration.  The written procedures will include a plan for notifying people of the location of such shelters.

      e. Procedures ensuring that people who use service animals are not separated from their service animals when sheltering during an emergency, even if pets are prohibited in shelters.  The procedures will not segregate people who use service animals from others but may take into account the potential presence of people who, for safety or health reasons, should not be in contact with certain types of animals.

      f. Plans for providing equivalent opportunities for accessible post-emergency temporary housing to people with disabilities.  The County will ensure that information it makes available regarding temporary housing includes information on accessible housing (such as accessible hotel rooms within the community or in nearby communities) that could be used if people with disabilities cannot immediately return home after a disaster if, for instance, necessary accessible features such as ramps or electrical systems have been compromised.