How would housebound and homeless people survive a natural disaster?

There is no doubt that the New Yorker article published last month about the earthquake apparently set to destroy the entire Pacific Northwest scared pretty much all of us. But for housebound and homeless people, the feeling of vulnerability surrounding a natural disaster is intensified.

“I’m aware of how many days it takes for somebody to knock on my door to see if I’m OK,” Seattle’s Bob Gerwig said. “And it’s a long time; it’s two weeks.”

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Gerwig was diagnosed with HIV in 1985, and by 1991 he was sick with AIDS. Bob was so sick he couldn’t get out of bed for a decade.

“Natural disasters change everything in a person’s life,” he said. “Catastrophic illness, especially in the ’80s and ’90s when there was so much stigma and fear compounding that already devastating news, it was a disaster. It was a catastrophe for me, for my family, for anyone who knew me.”

Gerwig relies on Lifelong’s Chicken Soup Brigade to deliver him meals, and that is who is behind the knock he gets on his door every two weeks.

“Chicken Soup Brigade delivers to about 800 people a week, all of which are [housebound],” Paul Getzel, director of the Brigade, explained. “These are people who can’t get out to purchase food, they can’t bare the weight to bring the food home and, most of the time, they can’t stand at the stove to prepare it. In regard to natural disasters, this is really worrisome. On the average week, our driver might be the only person that isolated, [housebound] person sees.”

Recently, Chicken Soup Brigade was given a donation of 1,000 emergency disaster kits, enough for all of their clients, containing supplies designed to last for three days. The tidy little pack holds food, water pouches designed to last several years, a Mylar blanket and several other items.

“I augment mine by having another one that has just meds in it and another that has things like rubber gloves and masks and things that I would need people to use in dealing with me if I were bleeding,” Gerwig said. “I have also kept canned food and bottled water where I live for the last 30-something years.”

Gerwig said a big fear for him, and others who are sick, elderly and housebound, is being forgotten in the event of an emergency.

“I started living alone five years ago for the first time since I got sick,” he said. “That was a big step for me and still is. I rely on Lifeline for prepared meals, for groceries. So I’m always aware of people who don’t have what I do. I own my own condo, I paid off the mortgage, I’m well situated.”

“One thing we’re urging, as we think about natural disasters, is to urge neighbors to kind of notice their neighbors,” Getze said. “Especially vulnerable and disabled neighbors. There are tens of thousands of people, they live in every neighborhood, very vulnerable and should the worst occur it’s maybe somebody that’s not going to be making noises and be noticeable.”

And then there are those without homes. Walter Zisette is director of housing for Lifelong in King County.

“Thirty-seven hundred people each night are living somewhere outside,” he explained. “Which means under bridges, in their cars, or in some very vulnerable location where you really don’t want to be in the event of a disaster. So the most important thing that we can do, when we work with our clients to prepare, is to get them in supportive housing. Unfortunately, in our community, we have a crisis in the housing world.”

Click here for tips from the City of Seattle on how you can prepare for a disaster.

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