After Hurricane Rita, the Houston-Galveston Area Council was asked by Harris, Galveston, and Brazoria Counties to coordinate an evacuation task force. During the process of evaluating the region’s response to hurricane evacuation, a group of emergency managers and public information officers noted their need for assistance in communicating with special needs populations, which became part of the Houston-Galveston Area Evacuation and Response Task Force recommendations. As part of these recommendations, H-GAC in partnership with the Houston TranStar partners engaged a small team of consultants to develop a hurricane evacuation communications initiative targeting populations with special needs.
The consultant team engaged 150 subject matter experts from organizations serving one or more of the project’s targeted special needs categories, including hearing impaired, homebound, homeless, illiterate, media non-users, medical conditions, sight impaired, Spanish speaking, and Vietnamese speaking. In addition, the team also met with 200 emergency management contacts from the 13-counties and 132 cities in the H-GAC region.
At the conclusion of these series of meetings, consistent themes emerged, which the consulting team viewed as key to the long-term success of an effort to communicate the importance of hurricane preparation to populations with special needs, and motivate them to take action. The consulting team has prepared a plan that outlines these necessary strategies and tactics and a communications tool box for use by emergency managers and organizations that serve special needs populations.