TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to direct the Fire Chief to report to the City Council on the status of the letter of participation, and how the City of Long Beach and its residents can participate in the County of Los Angeles Special Needs Awareness Program (SNAP) Voluntary Registry.
DISCUSSION
The County of Los Angeles operates a Special Needs Assessment Plan Voluntary Registry. The purpose of this registry is to facilitate the planning and implementation of disaster response by first-responder agencies to persons with special needs living in the County of Los Angeles. The registry is a project of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management in cooperation with other cities and agencies in the Los Angeles County disaster response operational area.
The Special Needs Disaster Registry is a voluntary program for those persons in Los Angeles County who may need specific disability-related assistance and/or accommodations in the event of a major disaster.
Special accommodations and assistance needs may include communicating through alternative means, requiring specialized paratransit services, life sustaining medications or equipment, etc.
Persons living in Los Angeles County and having any conditions that might impede with their abilities to evacuate a building, travel to or stay safely in an emergency evacuation center, or to securely shelter in place without assistance, can enroll in the Registry. Such conditions include:
· Physical disabilities
· Cardiac and/or respiratory circumstances
· Developmental disabilities
· Emotional or psychiatric disabilities
· Deafness or hearing loss
· Blindness or severe vision loss
· Speech impairments
· Short-term disabilities
· Reliance on technologies that use electricity
· Using medications
· Participation in a home delivery program
· Need specialized paratransit vehicles
· Experience seizures
· Immune system deficiencies
· Communicable diseases
· Severe chemical or other allergies
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