Six months after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Kansas University professor Glen White visited the area for a research project.

His project was to identify major barriers faced by centers for independent living and emergency managers in responding to the needs of people with disabilities.

What he found was alarming.

A lot of people had been abandoned and drowned, he said.

Why?

There was little, if any, planning before the disaster, and there was a breakdown in coordination and communication after the event.

"They didn't talk to each other - No. 1," he said.

The emergency managers didn't think about people with disabilities, and those people with disabilities never thought about developing a plan. White, director of KU's Research & Training Center on Independent Living, and his colleagues' findings were presented in a report, "Assessing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Persons with Disabilities."

Applying research here

"Here in Lawrence, we are getting the conversation going so that we can have people talk to each other," White said.

He is part of a new group called Together Prepared, which consists of Teri Smith, director of Douglas County Emergency Management, and members of other county agencies such as Independence Inc. and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. They are working on a community-based plan to ensure no one is left behind during a disaster.

They have identified six groups they believe are most vulnerable during a disaster: economically disadvantaged; elderly and children; mentally ill; chronically ill; people with physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities; and people who have limited English-speaking skills or who are culturally isolated.

And while it's important for these residents to have a plan, Together Prepared is making sure that the approximately 102 agencies in Douglas County that work with these residents have a plan as well.

"Instead of just starting at the consumer level, it's important to educate those at the organizational level so they have a clue as to what is going on," White said.

Scary results

Before the Hurricane Katrina project, White worked on "Nobody Left Behind" - which investigated 30 randomly selected counties, cities, parishes and boroughs where a natural or man-made disaster occurred between 1998 and 2003. The goals was to determine preparedness at local levels for people with mobility impairments.

"One in five didn't have a clue," White said. "So, it was kind of scary."

Here's one story that he heard: "I have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and use a wheelchair. We had a bomb threat at work. Everyone evacuated, but I was still left on the third floor by the stairwell for the firefighters to come get me. But, no one came. Finally, I just struggled and I used pure fear to get myself down the stairs and outside."

Smith said White's expertise and insight has been critical to the new county group. White has used a wheelchair for 45 years.

"As a person with a disability, I recognize that there are many people in our community who are more vulnerable during a catastrophic event than other people," he said.

Jane Blocher, director of the Douglas County chapter of the American Red Cross, who attended a recent Together Prepared forum, said it addressed an important issue.

"It's interesting seeing what the perspective of each agency is going to be," she said. "The brainstorming session that we had and the conversation are critical pieces to what the response is going to be, and I think we are on the right track and making good progress."

White said Douglas County is ahead of the emergency-planning curve, but there's always work to do. Together Prepared is building a handbook to help the public.

And the group plans to host a community forum in about six months. In the meantime, it plans to reach out to community organizations and businesses to get them thinking about vulnerable populations.

"We really need to be talking about this now, instead of waiting for an event to occur and say, 'Uh, what do we do?'" White said.