Children and Disasters - Principles of Emergency Management - page 482

Congregate Care Facilities,” provides perhaps the most directly beneficial informa-
tion. This Appendix identifies basic supplies necessary to sustain and support 10
infants and children up to three years of age for a 24-hour period. These rates allow
an estimation of perishable and nonperishable supplies necessary to support a given
number of children. Additional guidelines include:
◾ Shelters should have supplies to support the care of children for a minimum
of 72 hours.
◾ Supplies should accommodate the potential number of children up to three
years of age as determined by assessment of current jurisdictional demo-
graphic data.
◾ If space or other challenges prevent on-site storage, supplies should be avail-
able for immediate delivery to the shelter within 3 hours via local vendor
agreements, supply caches, interagency mutual aid, etc.
Tables 20.1 through 20.5 2 indicate NCCD supply recommendations. Sample
calculations for a hypothetical jurisdiction are also provided.
Using the rates specific in the NCCD resource tables, it is possible to calculate
the amount of food necessary to support pediatric needs in a given jurisdiction.
Table 20.6 indicates the food, snack, formula, and electrolyte requirements for a
five-county area with a total population of children aged 0 to 3 years of 11,147.
Once quantities are known, it is possible, given pack size, to calculate pallet loads
and truckloads necessary to support pediatric shelter needs in a 24-hour cycle.
Similar calculations can be performed for other perishable and nonperishable goods
to develop a resupply cycle to support logistics and shelter management.
Role of State and Local Governments
According to the NCCD report, children under the age of 18 years comprise about
25% of our population. Thus, planning to support their critical needs during a
disaster is vital to achieve quick and full recovery. Essential planning elements iden-
tified by the NCCD for state and local governments include
◾ Evaluate the demographics of jurisdictional child populations (age 0-18
years) including children with disabilities and special health care needs.
◾ Identify places children will most likely be when under supervised care such
as school, preschool, child care, summer camps, group homes, and juvenile
justice facilities.
◾ Include accommodations for children in disaster training, exercises, and
equipment purchases.
◾ Evaluate performance in meeting needs of children during emergency exer-
cises and in after action reports.