Dr. Mark Roby, Director of Nursing for the Department of Health in Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the department’s services.
Hurricane season preparedness is incredibly important this time of year.
Dr. Roby said, “We work really closely with the Monroe County Emergency Management and helping people get prepared for hurricane season. At DoH, we look at more of all hazards approach. While we’re focusing, obviously, on hurricanes, there are other things we look at as well. Make sure you have a plan. That’s the first step. The time to start planning is now getting prepared for yourself, your children, if you have them, don’t forget your pets. The Monroe County EM site has excellent resources on there to help people develop a plan, making sure you have adequate supplies. You really need to try and think about how you can survive on your own for about seven days, assuming that no help is coming. So think about food, water, medications. If you have babies, you want to have some ready to eat, formula. A radio, I know, with Irma trying to get information, I forgot I didn’t have a radio with a battery on it. I’m so used to the internet. So make sure you have a radio so you can tune in and get up to date information. When you’re thinking about food and water, make sure you have about a gallon of water per day, per person ready to go. It seems like a lot, but you will go through that. Have some non perishable foods. If you have canned foods, make sure you have a manual can opener.”
A first aid kit is also necessary.
Dr. Roby said, “One of our main goals during hurricane season with the Department of Health is we’re also responsible for managing this special needs shelter. So this shelter is designed for people who have special needs that are more difficult to manage than if they were to be in a regular, general population shelter. So we do open this up in conjunction with Monroe County Emergency Management. I think it’s important for people to remember that any shelter, whether it’s general population or the special needs shelter, should be the last resort. Think about planning, other options for you if you need to evacuate. So think about evacuating with family, friends that live out of the area. That’s always your best bet versus relying on a shelter, whether it’s general population or special needs. If you are going to go to go to a shelter, just be prepared. They may not have full supplies initially. It could take hours, sometimes days, to get up to speed and get all the supplies needed at the shelter as well. For our special needs, shelter, if it’s a hurricane, like a category one or maybe a low two, will shelter here in county, but for those interested in the special needs shelter, it’s important to remember that if it’s going to be a larger hurricane, we’re actually going to be evacuating up to FIU, so we’ll be going out of the county. The county can help arrange transport for people that meet qualifications. So just keep that in mind as part of your planning.”
High schools are typically used for shelters.
Dr. Roby said, “For general population shelters, yes. For the special needs shelter, for us, we would either be at the Gato Building in Key West or we would be up at Murray Nelson in Key Largo. It kind of depends on the track of the storm. So we would be sheltering in county at either one of those places. But again, as I said, for a larger hurricane, including general population, we’re moving out of county, so we’d be on the campus of FIU, and the general population shelter is not far from there.”
Pre registering for the special needs shelter is important.
Dr. Roby said, “We take registrations all the time. We do try to have a deadline of April 30, which is passed, but it’s not too late to go ahead and register. That can be done on the Monroe County Special Needs registry website. It is an electronic registration form, so people would need to be able to access the internet to register for that. There’s isn’t a paper form available. If people have difficulties accessing it, they can certainly come into the health department. Their health care provider can help them access it as well. They can also call the county to get assistance, and that number is 305-292-4591. It is important to register, because we want to make sure that you are meeting the eligibility requirements to be in the special needs shelter, and some of those include, if you’re dependent on oxygen, you have limited mobility. Think about if you’re dependent on a steady supply of electricity, where, if there’s a power interruption that could cause issues for you, then you could be eligible. People with moderate dementia or other impairment. If you’re wheelchair bound, or perhaps you have some type of wound care or ongoing need that needs to be managed and needs supervision, then you might be eligible for that. So we do review all of the applications at the Department of Health to make sure they meet those criteria. We will let everyone know if they meet it or not. If you don’t meet our criteria, if you fall below the threshold, then the recommendation would be general population. We can’t care for everything, so if it’s beyond our means to care for it at the special needs shelter, then we you would have to make other arrangements to get more intensive medical care, either at an assisted living or nursing home out of county if you have to evacuate or potentially a hospital.”
Are shelter facilities free of charge?
Dr. Roby said, “Yes, there’s no charge for them. You do need to bring your supplies. So even if you’re going to the shelter again, think food, water, clothing, bed linens. Plan on being there for about seven days, so make sure you bring enough supplies for you to stay comfortable. We’ll try and keep you as comfortable as possible. But it is a shelter. Space is limited, and you’ll be in there with other people as well, but we’ll try and make people as comfortable as possible as we ride out the storm and then try to get back home as soon as we can. Bring your own medical equipment. So if you have an oxygen concentrator, a nebulizer, bring that with you. We do have some of those supplies on hand too, if we need for backup, or if someone develops an issue while at the shelter that we need to make an intervention. So we do have some of those supplies as well, but it’s always best to bring your own so that you can be as self sufficient as possible, and we’ll be there to help support you and again, keep us all comfortable and safe.”
Are pets okay at the shelters?
Dr. Roby said, “We don’t take pets in the special needs shelter, unless they are certified service animals that are providing assistance for specific conditions. This isn’t those comfort animals that we’re talking about, but think like seeing eye dog. Think along those lines, not your comfort parrot. They would need to be registered at the time of your registration and the county would assess and evacuating those animals as well. But they would go to the pet shelter, which is not far from the special needs shelter. It’s in conjunction with the general population.”
What about emergency alerts?
Dr. Roby said, “The county uses the Everbridge alert system. So if you haven’t registered for that again, you can access that on the Monroe County website. That’s always a good part of a plan. If you registered for the special needs in the past, it is an annual thing, so if you registered last year, you just make sure you re-register this year, so we can maintain you active on the list.”
For more information, click here: https://monroe.floridahealth.gov/