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Independent Living News & Policy from the National Council on Independent Living

Action Alert: Share Your Stories from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma

NCIL has partnered with Portlight Inclusive Disaster Strategies, Inc to determine what challenges and problems people with disabilities faced in shelters, with transportation and evacuation, with housing options after the storm, in applying for benefits, and problems with any other interactions with emergency services. (Note: we are also interested in Hurricane Maria’s impact, but due to lack of communication abilities with the affected territories and ongoing response work, in which NCIL is currently engaged, we do not anticipate being able to complete a report at this time.)

NCIL logo - National Council on Independent LivingWere you in a shelter and experienced problems or mistreatment? Have you had difficulty finding housing options after the storm or applying for FEMA or other benefits? Did you experience difficulties in arranging transportation, services during and after the storm, or arranging evacuation? We want to hear from you. These stories will be scrubbed of identifying information and be used as data in reports on what problems people with disabilities experienced, and to determine what can be done to mitigate these problems so that they do not arise in future disasters.

If you are interested in sharing your stories or have any questions about this initiative, please send them to Sarah Blahovec at [email protected] by October 31st, 2017.