VAN NUYS : FEMA Draws Criticism for Care of Disabled

Responding to complaints that the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not appropriately address the needs of disabled victims of the Northridge earthquake, the head of the agency’s civil rights arm said FEMA would try to be more responsive in the future.

“I’m sure there are lessons that can be learned,” said Alan Clive, speaking at a forum on the agency’s response to the Jan. 17 quake at the Independent Living Center in Van Nuys. “It’s going to help us to help people if the disabled community can come to us.”

Clive, who is blind, said he was considering implementing sensitivity training for FEMA staff and hiring someone from the disabled community to act as a liaison in future disasters.

The agency is working on a training manual to help disabled-service agencies prepare for a disaster, he said.

The hearing, at Clive’s request, featured leaders from a variety of nonprofit groups serving people with disabilities, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Crippled Children’s Society and the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness.

Heidi Kleiger, program manager for the Council on Deafness, said it was a challenge just to ask FEMA what special services were available for the hearing-impaired.

“We spent more than one week trying to contact the right person at FEMA,” Kleiger said through a sign-language interpreter. “It was very frustrating for us to get assistance to the deaf community. The Telephone Device for the Deaf Line was always busy.”

Although the FEMA centers were wheelchair-accessible to people with disabilities, several advocates said their clients had trouble getting to and from the facilities.

“They had mobility problems in getting to the . . . centers,” said Cynthia Vicknair, emergency services and advocacy coordinator for the Independent Living Center. “I think it’s an issue FEMA needs to take care of as far as providing some form of transportation.”

Another speaker complained that some staff at FEMA’s Disaster Assistance Centers were not well-trained in dealing with the special needs of the disabled.

Barbara Kambouris, FEMA’s liaison for community-based organizations for the Northridge earthquake relief effort, said the agency did have a team of three people assigned specifically to contact and aid disabled-service groups.