{"id":32059,"date":"2019-10-30T20:20:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T01:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=32059"},"modified":"2019-10-31T09:15:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T14:15:58","slug":"people-with-disabilities-unsheltered-in-tornado-alley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/10\/30\/people-with-disabilities-unsheltered-in-tornado-alley\/","title":{"rendered":"People with disabilities unsheltered in tornado alley"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_32063\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32063\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-672x448.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/JohnsCross2-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">John High relies on his Christian faith to get him through Oklahoma\u2019s severe weather. He installed this 14-foot high cross in front of his rental house.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">John High knows that when he hears a tornado siren, he\u2019s on his own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI just pray. That\u2019s all I can do,\u201d High says while sitting in his motorized wheelchair at his home in Norman, Okla.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s because he doesn\u2019t have a safe place to go.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;One person told me \u2018put on a football helmet and go in your kitchen.\u2019 I got a window in every room of this house, so there\u2019s really no place for me to go. That\u2019s why I\u2019m trying to get a shelter,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.simplecast.com\/e3cfb83d-704c-4f87-bd3a-0d14283bacad?dark=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High chose the house he has rented for more than a decade because of its proximity to a public school that was a designated public shelter. From his driveway, High can see the school just down the street. But most public shelters, including that one, were shut down a few years ago, leaving Oklahomans like High to fend for themselves.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI lost my leg last Thanksgiving,\u201d High said. \u201cThey expect people to \u2018shelter in place\u2019 but I don\u2019t have anywhere safe to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gold standard for people who live in tornado-prone areas is a storm shelter. They range in price from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the size and materials. The base model is basically a concrete box set into the ground, usually in a backyard. But it requires people to go down a set of steep stairs that is not wheelchair accessible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">High receives assistance from both Medicaid and Medicare and says he simply can\u2019t afford to pay for his own shelter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat bill am I going to not pay to try to save up $3,800? I live day to day. Every month is really rough,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After the closure of the public shelters, High thinks the federal or state government should help people with disabilities get their own storm shelters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe\u2019re [in] tornado alley. We\u2019re known for it. Why aren\u2019t they helping to protect us?\u201d He said. \u201cInstead it\u2019s \u2018well, just duck your head and go in your house.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-ldnPK\" class=\"wpcom-protected-iframe\" src=\"\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/ldnPK\/4\/\" width=\"100%\" height=\"650\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h4>Climate change is making storms worse<\/h4><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disasters are becoming more common in America. In the early and mid-20th century, fewer than 20 percent of U.S. counties<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/4941265-2017-NBER-the-Effect-of-Natural-Disasters-on.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> experienced a disaster<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> each year. Today, it&#8217;s about 50 percent. According to the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nca2018.globalchange.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 2018 National Climate Assessment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, climate change is already driving more severe droughts, floods and wildfires in the U.S. And those disasters are expensive. The federal government<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/riskcenter.wharton.upenn.edu\/disaster-aid\/federal-disaster-rebuilding-spending-look-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> spends<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> billions of dollars annually helping communities rebuild and prevent future damage.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2019\/10\/28\/a-disastrous-disconnect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Data collected and analyzed<\/a> by the Center for Public Integrity found that between 2009 and 2018, Oklahoma had the highest number of major disaster declarations in the country. That includes severe storms, fires, floods, ice storms and tornadoes. Many of those hazards, including storms, are expected to become worse and more frequent due to<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/19january2017snapshot.epa.gov\/sites\/production\/files\/2016-09\/documents\/climate-change-ok.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> climate change<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf you\u2019re able to install a safe room in your home, or on your property, we recommend that you do that, it\u2019s the safest place that you can be during a storm,\u201d said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite experiencing some of the most severe weather events in the nation, Oklahoma has no state laws requiring storm shelters in homes, apartments or businesses.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Instead, storm shelters are marketed as an amenity in some new housing developments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32062\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32062\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-1920x1280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-672x448.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/Okla_OEMsign-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management does not track which homes have storm shelters, and officials say there is no program to help people with disabilities get access to shelters.<\/p>\n<\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCommunity shelters are funded on their own, either through bond issues or other funding methods, we don\u2019t have a listing of the community shelters, they don\u2019t have to register it through the state or anything, unless it\u2019s funded by a [federal] grant program,\u201d Cain said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oklahoma has one statewide storm shelter rebate program, funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Cain says the grant provides about 50 households a year with up to $2,000 to help cover the cost. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it\u2019s a random lottery system that doesn\u2019t take socioeconomic status into account &#8211; and it&#8217;s restricted to homeowners. Renters, like John High, can\u2019t even apply.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s FEMA\u2019s rules,\u201d Cain said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FEMA does<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/03\/05\/688786177\/how-federal-disaster-money-favors-the-rich\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">restrict much of its disaster funding to homeowner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s, which has<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.trla.org\/legal-blog\/texas-and-feds-sued-for-categorically-denying-disaster-aid-to-tenants-despite-having-5-billion-available-for-housing-needs\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">spurred litigation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Cain also said that for a person with a disability, there isn\u2019t any help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere is no specific program to help people with disabilities get a storm shelter,\u201d Cain said. \u201cSome people might have to leave their homes a couple of hours before the storm and go to a place that is safe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Americans with Disabilities Act turns 30<\/h4><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In July 1990 President George H.W. Bush signed the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ada.gov\/2010_regs.htm\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Americans with Disabilities Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into law. The ADA attempted to break down the barriers preventing millions of people from living healthy, productive lives by requiring basic steps to be taken to accommodate a range of health challenges, including impairments of sight, sound, and mobility.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFifteen percent of the population is over the age of 65,\u201d said Marcie Roth, CEO of the<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wid.org\/climate-change\/\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Institute on Disability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u201cWithin the next 40 years, this will grow to one in four people in the United States. In an emergency, you can count on the fact that people with disabilities will be affected.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ADA has been modified over the years to include emergency preparedness, but the focus was renewed after severe weather events like Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Harvey.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More recently, states were<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/file\/885401\/download\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sent guidance on how to comply with the ADA by federal agencies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the Department of Justice, but the implementation of those directives has been haphazard, and Roth says emergency preparedness has fallen by the wayside. She says it can be seen in the devastation caused by<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/tags\/551747980\/hurricane-maria\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hurricane Maria<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a deadly Category 4 hurricane that ravaged Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Dominica in 2017.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cInterruption of medical care and disability services was the primary cause of almost 3,000 deaths following Hurricane Maria,\u201d Roth said. \u201cEmergency planning needs to be inclusive of the whole community and it needs to be equally accessible to everyone in the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.relmanlaw.com\/team-sara-pratt\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sara Pratt<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a former official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development specializing in housing and disability rights and helped write the guidance sent to states. Now a civil rights lawyer in Washington D.C., Pratt thinks that Oklahoma may be violating the ADA.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe idea that we don\u2019t have to serve people with disabilities who are renters is not consistent with federal law,\u201d Pratt said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pratt says federal civil rights laws, including the Fair Housing Act and the ADA, require accommodations for people with disabilities in all disaster programs, including mitigation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe programs that are being offered to assist people who are sheltering in their homes should be available to both homeowners and renters if they have disabilities and have disability-related needs,\u201d she said. \u201cThere has to be an opportunity for a person with a disability to shelter.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.disabilitystatistics.org\/reports\/acs.cfm?statistic=7\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">630,000 people in Oklahoma have a disability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but the state doesn\u2019t know how many of them need storm shelters. Some local governments keep track of how many households already have one, but there is no shelter reporting requirement.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_32060\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-32060\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-1920x1257.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-1920x1257.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-672x440.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-768x503.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-150x98.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-620x406.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2019\/10\/John_High2-1649x1080.jpg 1649w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Jackie Fortier \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">John High sits with his dog Angel in his house in Norman, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h4>Some left seeking shelter<\/h4><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sitting in his living room in Norman, John High says he\u2019d like to see the public shelters reopened.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSome people don\u2019t even know the shelters are gone yet,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t need something, you don\u2019t think about it until it\u2019s necessary.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the shelters don\u2019t re-open, High says he\u2019ll keep trying to get financial assistance to get an accessible storm shelter in his home. He plans to put it in the garage, so he can easily drive his wheelchair in, but so far he\u2019s encountered a web of regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEvery time I hear the tornado siren, I fear, I fear for my life,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a tornado comes through here, I\u2019m going to be dead.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><em>This story is part of a series about the insufficient protections for vulnerable people as natural disasters worsen in a warming climate. StateImpact Oklahoma and four partners \u2013 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, High Country News, Ohio Valley ReSource and the Center for Public Integrity \u2013 are contributing stories.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite experiencing some of the most severe weather events in the nation, there are no state laws requiring storm shelters in Oklahoma. Public shelters have largely been closed leaving people with disabilities without a safe option during storms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":32061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491,23],"tags":[549,548,220,540,1172],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32059"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32068,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32059\/revisions\/32068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}