How climate change risks impact people with disabilities

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• Amna Nawaz:

  As the planet warms, scientists say natural disasters are becoming more destructive and more frequent. And data shows certain communities are hit harder than others.

  Judy Woodruff reports from Florida on the disproportionate impact on people with disabilities.

  It's part of our series Disability Reframed.

• Judy Woodruff:

  By the time Hurricane Ian left a trail of destruction in Fort Myers, Florida, last September, 61-year-old Lynne Bitzinger had already been without permanent housing for five years.

• Lynne Bitzinger, Hurricane Survivor:

  2017, Hurricane Irma, it wiped us out. A tree was put through my roof on my mobile home. I ended up with mold, water running down my walls.

  Up to that point, the storms were just an event. At that point, the storms became cruel. Everything in my home was gone.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Bitzinger, who's been in several car accidents and suffers from spinal damage, uses a scooter and a Walker to get around. She also cares for her friend Dennis Vaughn, a 73-year-old Vietnam veteran with critical illnesses and post-traumatic stress disorder.

  As Ian approached, the two huddled in a Fort Myers motel.

• Lynne Bitzinger:

  I was on the first floor in an ADA room, and when the water started surging, we had to escape to safety. I have never seen water like I saw. Everything was underwater. Our cars were underwater. And I looked up and I said: "God, I'm in trouble here. I need an Ark."

• Judy Woodruff:

  They eventually made it to a higher floor. But it would be months before they had a permanent place to live.

  Bitzinger's new mobile home was delayed, in part, because it needed a ramp and other modifications for her disability. She has lived through hurricanes in Florida for decades. She navigated unaccommodating shelters and complicated disaster recovery. She says those tasked with helping residents in these storms don't pay enough attention to the needs of people like her and Dennis.

• Lynne Bitzinger:

  I would like people to stop ignoring the need.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The challenges can be particularly acute in Florida, a state with more natural disasters than almost anywhere in the country and where more than 4.5 million people — that is more than a quarter of the adult population — have a disability.

  Travis Taylor is with the Center for Independent Living, Gulf Coast. He helped Bitzinger get a new scooter after hers was damaged during Ian. Taylor distributed food and supplies to residents after the storm. He also went into shelters to make sure they complied with the Americans With Disabilities Act. He found cluttered aisles, residents unable to reach staff, and a shortage of accessible restrooms.

  Travis Taylor, Center for Independent Living Gulf Coast: Just listening to the stories of individuals that had gone through the hurricane, nothing is ever going to be the same here in Lee County. All we can do is learn and be prepared for before, during, and after the hurricanes, because it's not if it is going to happen again; it's when.

• Judy Woodruff:

  As climate change worsens, with extreme weather events becoming more severe and frequent nationwide, the disability community is sounding the alarm.

  Research shows people with disabilities are up to four times more likely to die in disasters than the general population. And, according to U.S. census data released in January, most people with disabilities never return to their homes after a disaster.

  About 70 percent of deaf evacuees lived in unsanitary conditions for a month post-disaster, compared to just 7 percent of those with hearing. And three-quarters of people who couldn't walk experienced a lack of food, compared to just 9 percent of those who could walk.

• Justice Shorter, Disability Advocate:

  For me, that data was simply affirmation.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Justice Shorter is a Washington, D.C.-based blind disability activist who also advocates for racial and environmental justice. An expert on emergency management, she's heard countless stories about what people face before, during, and after natural disasters.

• Justice Shorter:

  First, getting even access to information is a hurdle. Let's say your local officials tell you, go on our Web site to find more information to be able to track the storm, track what's going on. We will send out information via our Web site.

  When you go on that Web site, it's completely inaccessible. In terms of sheltering, right, so many shelters have been deemed accessible, when they simply are not. How soon the debris is moved from the side of the road, because other people might have been coming back, but they're also gutting their homes and doing that on or near the sidewalk.

  That might not be a huge inconvenience, unless you need to use the sidewalk to safely navigate.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Overlaying so much of this, Justice, is this is this message that people with disabilities may be hearing that, well, we're doing everything we can, but we can't take care of everybody.

  The question is, where does that leave individuals with disabilities?

• Justice Shorter:

  When we say we can't save everybody, when we say that every disaster is going to bring about a number of acceptable losses, when we use phrases like that, what we are truly saying is, individuals with disabilities will die, and we just have to deal with it.

• Judy Woodruff:

  In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people. In hard-hit New Orleans, over 70 percent of the deaths were among people age 60 and older, and most of them had medical conditions or disabilities that increased their vulnerability.

  In Katrina's aftermath, Congress mandated the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, appoint a coordinator to help people with disabilities through disasters.

  Sherman Gillums Jr., a former Marine, took over that job in August 2022. He's worked to get FEMA's disability experts to disasters faster, and has visited multiple hurricane and tornado sites himself.

• Sherman Gillums Jr., Disability Coordinator, Federal Emergency Management Agency:

  We went from a response model to a proactive, we do the planning. We don't wait until the disaster matures to a point there are a lot of problems we have to fix.

  So, if We're averting problems, there's no need to be there as long or have as many people because we are laying down better plans.

• Judy Woodruff:

  But criticism of FEMA persists.

  Lynne Bitzinger said she jumped through many hoops with the agency, only to be denied housing assistance. She also complained about a lack of communication and underqualified staff.

• Sherman Gillums Jr.:

  I accept that criticism because we want to make sure that nobody comes out of a disaster feeling that way. I don't listen for good news. I'm listening for the areas where we may not get a do-over, but we can a do-better.

• Judy Woodruff:

  And Gillums agrees with activist Justice Shorter that improving conditions for those with disabilities requires their input and that authorities take them seriously.

• Justice Shorter:

  People with disabilities are still not meaningfully included in every phase of disaster management and planning. We are pushed to the side as a kind consideration.

  So, we are doing you a favor by listening to you, disability community, and we need you to spend extensive amount of time, labor telling us all of the things that we need to do, and then we will go back and decide whether or not and how we go about doing that.

  And I'm saying there has to be a fundamental shift in how that process works.

• Judy Woodruff:

  Part of that shift, advocates say, must come in the long-term planning for climate change.

  Last year, a report from McGill University and the International Disability Alliance found governments worldwide largely ignored people with disabilities in their climate mitigation and adaptation work. It said less than a third of countries who signed the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement even mentioned people with disabilities in their long-term plans.

• Lynne Bitzinger:

  It would be really awesome if people would start to see a little bit of the struggle.

• Judy Woodruff:

  For her part, Lynne Bitzinger has considered leaving Florida and its devastating storms behind.

• Lynne Bitzinger:

  I have thought of moving, but where am I going to move to?

• Judy Woodruff:

  She says she can't help but wonder, is there anywhere she'd be truly safe from the effects of climate change?

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Judy Woodruff in Fort Myers, Florida.