A medical plan for storm season

A storm plan for a medically fragile household is different from a general hurricane kit. Register needs early, protect medicines and powered equipment, and know where care can continue if Baytown loses power.

The fuller answer

For most households, getting ready for a hurricane means water, batteries and gas in the car. For a household with oxygen, insulin, dialysis, a wheelchair or a bedridden grandparent, it means much more, and the days after the storm can be more dangerous than the storm itself. This page is for those households.

The state's registry: sign up before the season

STEAR, the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry, is a free registry that gives local emergency planners and responders information about people in their community who may need extra help. The state built it to help local governments learn what their residents need during an emergency. It's meant for people with disabilities, medical conditions, limited mobility, communication barriers, transportation needs or a need for personal care. Register online at stear.texas.gov, through the 2-1-1 Texas helpline, or on a paper form in English or Spanish. Signing up is voluntary and doesn't guarantee a particular service, but it puts you on the map for the people planning the response. Do it now, while the sky is clear.

2-1-1 Texas is also the state's line for finding help in general: food, shelter, rent and utility assistance, and disaster help.

The kit, for the medical part of the house

• At least a week of every medicine, plus copies of the prescriptions. Ask your doctor and pharmacist about an early refill before hurricane season.
• The medicine list, allergies, and the names and numbers of every doctor, in a waterproof bag.
• Refrigerated medicines such as insulin need a plan for when the power goes out. Ask the pharmacist now how long yours can stay out of the fridge, and keep a cooler and ice packs ready. The CDC's general rule is that when the power is out for a day or more, refrigerated medicine should be thrown away unless its label says otherwise, but a medicine you depend on to stay alive is a different case: call your pharmacist or doctor before you discard it, and replace it as soon as you can. For insulin, the CDC says to keep it cool but never frozen, and out of direct heat and sunlight.
• Oxygen and powered equipment. Know how long your backup lasts. Ask the equipment supplier what they do during outages, and have a plan to get to power: a relative, a friend, or a shelter that can take medical needs. Duke Medical Equipment, 4306 Hugh Echols Blvd, lists home delivery, home setup and equipment service, with weekday hours of 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Dialysis, chemotherapy or other regular treatments. Ask your clinic now what happens if a storm closes it, and where you'd go instead. DaVita Baytown Dialysis, 4665 Garth Rd, Suite 900, lists hours from early morning to evening Monday through Saturday and is closed Sunday. Fresenius Kidney Care, 4816 E Chase St, lists Monday through Saturday, 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Chargers for phones, hearing aids and power chairs, and a battery bank.

After the storm

• Generators go outside, and the CDC says more than 20 feet from any windows, doors and vents, never in a garage or inside the home, even with doors and windows open. Carbon monoxide has no smell. Use a battery-powered or battery-backup carbon monoxide detector, and know the warning signs: headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion.
• Heat without power is dangerous, especially for older adults and anyone on medicines that raise heat risk. Go somewhere with power if the house gets too hot.
• Stay out of floodwater.
• Check on the neighbor who lives alone.
• Know where to get help. The American Red Cross is listed at 5309 Decker Dr, and its find-help page is at redcross.org/find-help.

Baytown lives beside some of the largest industrial complexes in the country, and it has a warning system built for that.

What's still safe in the fridge: Eating after the storm.

The siren on Wednesday mornings

Baytown lives beside some of the largest industrial complexes in the country, and it has a warning system built for that. Outdoor sirens are tested every Wednesday at 9 a.m., for one full minute. That's the Greater Baytown-area Local Emergency Planning Committee, which runs the chemical-emergency siren system. If you hear a siren at any other time, the instruction for a chemical emergency is to shelter in place:

1. Go inside right away, with your family and pets. 2. Close and lock the windows and doors. 3. Turn off the air conditioning and fans, and close fireplace dampers. 4. Go to an interior room and seal gaps with tape, plastic or damp towels. 5. Turn on local radio or TV, and wait for the official all-clear.

If someone in the house has asthma or COPD, keep their inhalers and medicines in the room you'd shelter in, not in the car. Register for the city's phone, text and email alerts on the City of Baytown's emergency management page.

For the rest of the hurricane plan (zones, evacuation, shelters), see the Baytown hurricane guide. For children, see Hurricanes with little ones.

Before you go

• Register with STEAR at stear.texas.gov before the season starts, and update your entry if your needs change.
• Ask your dialysis or treatment clinic, in writing if you can, where you would go if it closes.
• Find out from your medicine supplier and pharmacist how long your refrigerated medicine and your backup power will last.
• Put a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector on the shopping list before you buy a generator, and decide where the generator will sit.
• Sign up for the city's alerts, and note the Wednesday 9 a.m. siren test so you know what a normal test sounds like.

Sources

Texas Division of Emergency Management, STEAR; 2-1-1 Texas (Texas HHS); Greater Baytown-area LEPC, services and siren testing; City of Baytown Office of Emergency Management, chemical emergencies and preparedness; CDC, carbon monoxide poisoning after a disaster; CDC, refrigerated drugs during natural disasters and managing insulin in an emergency; CDC, heat and health.