“You can’t help but notice that the people who perished were people with disabilities,” said Hector Ramirez, member of the Disability Commission at the L.A. County Department for Aging & Disabilities. “The community was left behind.”
Despite three calls for help to 911, Anthony Mitchell Sr. and his son Justin Mitchell, both wheelchair users, died in their burning home. The calls to 911 were later published in the LAist.
“ My house is on fire,” he says, repeating his address, his tone still calm. “Two disabled people in the house.”
“I can hear crackling now. I can see the flames,” Anthony Mitchell Sr. tells the dispatcher.
“OK. And you're in the residence right now?” the dispatcher asks.
“Yes, we are,” he replies. “Myself and my disabled son. We're both disabled.”
As the dispatcher typed notes, Anthony Mitchell Sr. softly says, “Hurry, please.”
After confirming the address again, the dispatcher says, “OK, sir, we'll get out there as soon as we can.”
Help never arrived.
The L.A. fires are another in a long line of natural disasters with disproportionate impacts on people with disabilities.
Census data shows that people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to be displaced from their homes in a natural disaster. That likelihood can be even higher depending on the type of disability. For example, people who may require alternative, non-verbal communication methods, were over three times as likely to report displacement.
People with disabilities were nearly four times as likely to report that they had not returned home, a year after displacement. For those with self-care related disabilities, defined by the Census as a difficulty dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home, that number was over five times higher.
Evacuating in an emergency is difficult and can be traumatic, but people with disabilities face barriers that abled-bodied people never have to. When Reda Rountree and her family piled themselves, their four cats and their luggage into their car, to evacuate their Highland Park home on January 8th, she had to make the impossible decision to leave her wheelchair behind.
“My wheelchair was just going to take up too much room,” said Rountree. “It’s so scary to have a disability and realize you’re not mobile. Honestly, I just broke down and cried. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Once evacuated, the reasons people with disabilities may be displaced for longer are various.
“Both likelihood of displacement and length of displacement are highly influenced by inaccessibility of emergency shelters, emergency transportation,” said Dr. Michael Ashley Stein, Executive Director of the Harvard Law School project on disability. “People with disabilities fleeing from disasters … can lose their medication, get separated from their caregivers, lose their assistive technology, perhaps not have documentation with them.”
“The disability community in many ways was left behind again,” Ramirez said. “It’s something that happens every time we have a major crisis of this type.”
As climate change worsens both the frequency and severity of natural disasters, the disabled community is desperate for answers.
“With climate change, we’re going to have more fires,” said Rountree. “Who’s going to help us?”
According to disability policy consultant June Kailes, who has worked in disaster planning and relief since the 1970s, no one is coming to help. Kailes and other experts encourage everybody, disabled or otherwise, to have a plan in case of emergency.
“People automatically assume they’re going to be rescued,” said Kailes. “That’s why it’s so critical to have good relationships and agreements with neighbors. How would you get out of the apartment if the elevator doesn’t work? How would you get to the street if you had to get downstairs? It’s about thinking about everything that’s disturbing to think about, and planning for it.”
The pattern in the data is clear; people with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by natural disasters. However, it’s important to remember that each data point presented here refers to a real person. This site features several stories from people with disabilities in Los Angeles, which can be found below.