• Set-up a Personal Support Network: Designate someone to check on you in an emergency and to help with evacuation or sheltering-in-place.
• Prepare and carry with you an emergency health information card: Carrying health information with you will help to communicate to rescuers what they need to know about you if they find you unconscious or incoherent, or if
  they need to quickly help evacuate you. Include information about your medications, adaptive equipment, blood type, allergies and sensitivities, insurance numbers, immunization dates, communication difficulties and preferred treatment, as well as contact information for your health providers, personal support network and emergency contacts.
• Personal Care Assistance: If you receive assistance from a home healthcare agency or in-home support provider, find out how the provider will respond in an emergency. Designate backup or alternative providers that you can contact in an emergency.
• For Persons Using a Wheelchair: Plan for how you will
  evacuate in an emergency and discuss it with your Personal Support Network. If you use a motorized wheelchair, have a manual wheelchair as a backup.
• For Persons who are Blind or Visually Impaired: Keep an extra collapsible cane by your bed. Attach a whistle to the cane; use it if you need to attract attention. Exercise caution when moving around after an earthquake; items may fall and block paths that are normally unobstructed.
• For Persons who are Hearing Impaired: Keep extra batteries for your hearing aids with emergency supplies.
  Consider storing your hearing aids in a container attached to your nightstand or bedpost, so you can locate them quickly after a disaster.
• For persons with Communication Disabilities: Determine how you will communicate with emergency personnel if you do not have your communication devices. Store paper, writing materials, copies of a word or letter board and preprinted key phrases specific to anticipated emergencies in all your emergency kits, your wallet, purse, etc.

Rhode Island Special Needs Emergency Registry: The RI Department of Health's Office of Special Healthcare Needs Emergency Preparedness Program has developed a Special Needs Emergency Registry for residents with disabilities, chronic conditions, and other healthcare needs such as: use of oxygen, respirator/ventilator, dialysis, pacemaker, defibrillator, or insulin-dependent; use of a wheelchair, walker/cane, prosthesis, or an assistive animal; visually impaired, legally blind, hard of hearing, deaf, speech impaired, non-verbal, or cognitively/developmentally delayed. All information received into the registry will be kept confidential for use by emergency responders only.

To find out more information or to register please call 1-800-942-7434 or visit the Special Needs Registry on-line.