The Alachua County Community Organizations Active in Disasters (COAD) is already upping its game to be prepared for this year’s hurricane season in Florida, which officially begins June 1.

Now in its second year, the COAD comprises faith-based communities and nonprofit organizations. This year, the COAD has transformed into a COAD-LTR, for long-term recovery, with fiduciary representation from United Way. This means the COAD can assist in long-term recovery efforts after a storm, when federal assistance might no longer be available, and some people might run into the most difficulty, and funding might be required.

Right now, the COAD is in its “Blue Skies Planning for Gray Skies” phase of getting ready. But while everyone is impacted by storms, which respect no demographic lines, COAD leaders believe our aging population may be particularly hard hit.

“There is so much to say about impacts on seniors; not just heat and storm anxiety, but also insurance costs, difficulty in preparing and recovering from storms, worry about evacuation,” said Ellen Siegel, a member of the COAD leadership team who is also a climate speaker specialist with The Cleo Institute. “It’s not that we are disabled as a cohort; it is that we are less abled than we were, and that creates an extra burden. And if we are also low-income, or caretakers of even older folks (of grandchildren), the burden is that much heavier.”

Assistance is available across the board, of course, not just for the elderly.

“The goal is basically to help people who are unable to help themselves after a disaster, said Francine Vincent, COAD co-chair and Alachua County emergency management coordinator. “The people who are not insured, or under-insured, or if we are not federally declared a disaster area, these people will need the help of the community to help them through an incident.”

Helen Warren, a former Gainesville city commissioner and co-chair of the COAD, said although they are not alone, it is the elderly people who need extra help.

“These are the people who are hardest hit, and we’re going to reach out to them,” she said.

But Warren stressed that the elderly also need to be proactive about helping themselves by getting to know their neighbors, especially those who have opted to stay in their homes and age in place.

“Our concept is that it is truly important to develop relationships intergenerationally, so we know who the elderly are who need assistance,” she said. “The key is to get to people ahead of time so they can know what they need to do to be prepared.”

Some older people are taking things into their own hands. Recently, the Senior Recreational Center’s Prime Time Institute invited David Peaton, Alachua County’s assistant director of emergency management, to speak with them and address their concerns.

Peaton, too, worries about hurricanes, but he says flooding can be more of an issue

“Flooding is the No. 1 hazard, not just in Florida but the entire country,” he said.

He stressed the need to sign up for emergency alerts by texting the word “Alachua” to 888777, not later, but now, so that if disaster strikes, you are already receiving the information you need during a large-scale disaster or emergency.

Peaton also reminded folks to sign up for the special needs registry to receive assistance during a disaster. Again, he emphasized the need to do so now, not later.

“Shelters are there for a reason,” he said. “If you feel unsafe in your home, evacuate somewhere safer. Shelters are safe, but not necessarily comfortable. It’s like comparing a lifeboat to a cruise ship.”

But as one woman in the session pointed out, she does not use a computer or a cell phone and wondered how she could get in the mix. Peaton pondered it for a minute and told her to “ask a friend, ask a neighbor, ask for tech support at the Senior Recreation Center.”

With temperatures already in the 90s, we need to remember that high temperatures represent another summertime emergency. “Treat heat emergencies as a real emergency and call for emergency services,” Peaton said. “If you have no power or air conditioning, cooling centers will be available at some Alachua County libraries and other public places to give people a break from the heat during the hottest times of the day.”

Peaton praised the COAD-LTR as the right kind of citizen initiative to help Alachua County residents get through the emergencies that are likely during the summer months. COAD co-chair Warren agrees.

“The COAD is the community approach to organizations that can respond in times of disaster. When disaster happens, we have the Red Cross and publicly organized government agencies, but so much depends on private community engagement,” Warren said.

COAD volunteers are training now to know about available services and mastering tasks like how to answer a phone in an emergency, to identify what the problem might be.

Participating COAD organizations include the United Way of North Florida, Hope Animal-Assisted Crisis Response, the CLEO Institute, Florida Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Network, Aletheia Church, the American Red Cross, the Rural Women’s Health Project, Baha’is of Gainesville, the United Church of Gainesville and others.

Editor’s note: This is the latest story in Mainstreet’s award-winning Aging Matters series. It was independently reported by Ronnie Lovler and underwritten by Elder Options.