ORLANDO, Fla. — When Hurricane Irma hit Central Florida nearly two years ago, Seminole County emergency managers say they weren’t fully ready to handle families with children with special needs.
- Seminole Co. wants to improve special needs services at shelters
- County giving specialized training to UCF med school students
- Training will certify students, make them available to volunteer at special needs shelters in future disasters
The county is now getting help from UCF College of Medicine students to help give families more options during future disasters.
Ashley Jones has three children on the autism spectrum, which made the days after Hurricane Irma hit especially hard.
“It was pretty bad, and especially to have children on the spectrum during that and nowhere to go, it was definitely tough,” Jones said.
With no power for nearly two weeks and a foot of water inside their house, Jones says her family was living out of their cars. Jones says the only nearby emergency shelter available was not equipped to handle her children’s needs.
“They can’t do the crowds, they can’t do a lot of people. It would have progressed into constant meltdowns if that was the case … “ Jones said.
Seminole County Emergency Management, through the Rescue Company 1, is now teaching students at UCF’s medical school in Lake Nona how to respond to medical emergencies. That training will certify the students and make them available to volunteer to staff special needs shelters in future disasters.
County Emergency Management Director Alan Harris says the county will add one more special needs shelter to the three it had in place during Irma, and more staffing to all of them.
The increase in shelters and staffing will give families like Jones’ somewhere to go if more storms hit Central Florida.
Seminole County Emergency managers say the additional emergency shelters and staff they’ll have ready will be available to people throughout Central Florida – not just Seminole County.