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New York Academy of Medicine Releases Tools for Shelter-in-Place during an Emergency

By Shana R. Deitch, September 28, 2007

On September 10, 2007, the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) announced the publication of an emergency preparedness report and tools designed to offer guidance about sheltering in place during a public health crisis.1 The report, With the Public’s Knowledge, We Can Make Sheltering in Place Possible, offers findings from interviews with teams of community residents in four demonstrations sites (Illinois, New Mexico, Georgia, and Oklahoma).2

The report and tools are products of a project called Redefining Readiness, which began in 2004 with the aim of improving emergency preparedness by gauging the feasibility of plans and the abilities of individuals and communities to carry out specific actions. The 2004 study and subsequent report, Terrorism Planning Through the Eyes of the Public, found that only about 60% of American people would be able to shelter in place in a building other than their own home in the event of a dirty bomb explosion.3 The study further found that many more people would be able to shelter in place if certain issues were addressed.

Subsequent interviews were conducted with individuals from the four demonstration sites in order to gain a better understanding of the potential problems sheltering in place may pose and how to devise solutions for those problems.2 The 2007 report highlights findings from the interviews, including the gaps in current planning for scenarios such as a dirty bomb explosion that could require sheltering in place:

• People are being instructed to keep supplies of food, water, and current medications in their homes; however, many people will not be in their homes when an emergency occurs, and they will take shelter in other buildings without access to their supplies of food, water, or medicines.
• Families are being told to identify places for members to reunite in the event of an emergency, but instructions don’t address situations in which it might be unsafe to do so.
• Although current instructions describe how to identify and safely seal rooms in homes, schools, and other buildings that have not been exposed, they pay little attention to ensuring that the rooms can accommodate large numbers of people who are likely to need shelter, providing people with breathable air and tolerable temperatures, or giving people safe access to water, food, bathrooms, telephones, and medical supplies.1

According to Roz Lasker, lead author of the report and director of the New York Academy of Medicine’s Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health and Division of Public Health, “The disconnect between current instructions and the problems people face in shelter-in-place emergencies isn’t surprising, since the public never had an opportunity to think about these situations in such detail before.”1

In addition to the full report, NYAM also created online shelter-in-place issues sets, which are questions for consideration for operating shelter-in-place locations in four different types of buildings or organizations (households, workplaces, schools and early childhood and youth programs, and government). Other materials in the shelter-in-place project that are available online include illustrated cards with the collective knowledge gained from participant interviews, and checklists for households for sheltering in place at home or at another location.

References

1. Academy Launches Emergency Preparedness Tools to Enable Millions More People to Shelter in Place than is Currently Possible. The New York Academy of Medicine. Press Release. September 10, 2007. http://www.nyam.org/news/2965.html. Accessed September 27, 2007.
2. Lasker RD, Hunter ND, Francis SE. With the Public’s Knowledge, We Can Make Sheltering in Place Possible. New York, NY: The New York Academy of Medicine; 2007. http://www.redefiningreadiness.net/rrsip.html. Accessed September 27, 2007.
3. Lasker RD. Redefining Readiness: Terrorism Planning Through the Eyes of the Public. New York, NY: The New York Academy of Medicine; 2004. http://www.redefiningreadiness.net/rrstudy.html. Accessed September 28, 2007.