Abstract
Planning Emergency Responses for Persons with Special Needs
Track: Disaster Management and Emergency Response
Author(s): James Kuiper, William Metz, Edward Tanzman
In 2006, a Department of Homeland Security report concluded, based on the inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, that “substantial improvement is necessary to integrate people with disabilities in emergency planning and readiness.” In August 2008, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released more stringent guidance on emergency planning for persons with special needs. Special Population Planner (SPP) is an ArcGIS-based emergency planning system developed by Argonne National Laboratory for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency and released as a free, open-source product. This paper will first cover the methods used and lessons learned in developing a registry for persons with special needs and statistics characterizing the participants. Second, aspects of SPP’s functionality will be described, including the mapping, reporting, editing, and analytical tools; linkage to models and other dynamic information sources; the documentation; and the demonstration database. Last, examples of how to reconfigure SPP for new sites will be discussed.
James Kuiper
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Avenue
Building 900/H03
Lemont , Illinois 60439-4832
United States
Phone: 630-252-6206
Fax: 630-252-3611
E-mail: jkuiper@anl.gov
William Metz
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Avenue
Lemont , Illinois 60439-4832
United States
Phone: 630-252-3271
E-mail: wmetz@anl.gov
Edward Tanzman
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Avenue
Lemont , Illinois 60439-4832
United States
Phone: 630-252-3263
E-mail: tanzman@anl.gov