NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 31

Space Crunch

HOW COVID IS CAUSING SHELTER SPACE TO DISAPPEAR

AMERICAN RED CROSS

Increasing space requirements for evacuees
would reduce shelter capacity and place
additional pressure on vulnerable populations
including the disabled and the elderly.

TO STEM THE SPREAD OF THE CORONAVIRUS, the Red Cross has issued a
recommendation that congregate shelters provide a minimum of 60 square
feet of space per evacuee, three times the pre-COVID guidance of 20 square
feet. Following that recommendation, however, means that available shelter
capacity in most communities would be cut by more than 60 percent, dramatically impacting areas like the Southeastern US and parts of Texas, where
shelter space is already inadequate, according to published reports.
Even in places like Florida, which has invested in recent years to boost
shelter capacity, adhering to the new space recommendations would be
problematic. In Alachua County, in the northern part of the state, total shelter
capacity would drop from about 14,200 spots to just 4,500 spots if the new
guidance is followed, according to numbers provided by the Florida Division
of Emergency Management. That reduction takes the county from a shelter
surplus to nearly 8,000 spots short of its estimated need if a major hurricane
were to hit.
"[The Red Cross guidance] sounds great, and sometimes plans sound
great, but when you need to test them with reality, it's an impossibility," said
Hal Grieb, the director of emergency management for Alachua County. The
fact is, in Florida and elsewhere, if a major incident happens, congregate
shelters-where evacuees are housed together, typically in big open spaces-
will likely be much more crowded than epidemiologists would like. That is,
unless emergency officials are prepared to turn away desperate people,
which is unlikely.
"A hurricane is a very imminent threat to life and safety," Zach Hood,
emergency management director for Baldwin County, Alabama, told NPR in
August. "We have to mitigate against the immediate loss of life, even if it puts
everyone in a compromised position to deal with and contain coronavirus."
If more crowded congregate shelters are needed, emergency officials are
banking that new procedures such as medical screening at the door, frequent
cleaning, social distancing and other measures will be enough to keep shelters free of the COVID-19 virus.
"What we don't want to be miscommunicated: if you are in need, there
is a place to shelter," Grieb said. "All 67 counties in the state of Florida are
working diligently to provide a safe as feasible place for those who need to
evacuate." -JR

sleep in a mask. You're going to have to
socially distance. We're going to have a
lot of hand sanitizer, a lot of hand washing stations. Feeding will not be buffet
style-we'll need individually packaged
meals," Grieb said. "A lot of those things
that we took for granted in operating a
shelter we have to rethink. Everything
we can do to mitigate and lessen exposures is what we have to focus on."
The first line of defense against the
virus will be a set of screening procedures at the door, developed in concert
with local and federal health departments. This, too, is more complicated
than it first seems. "People don't come
into shelters one by one-sometimes
they come in busloads," said Serino.
Rapid COVID-19 testing is not yet widely
available, and officials aren't counting
on it to be if a major disaster does strike.
Instead, the screening will most likely
involve a quick temperature reading
and a questionnaire to determine if the
person has symptoms or could have
been exposed. The Red Cross says it
plans to set up a separate isolation care
area adjacent to the shelter for evacuees
who are COVID positive, or who have
a fever or other signs of the virus. This
separate sheltering strategy for sick
evacuees and other vulnerable populations is one most agencies are adopting.
Despite the best-laid plans, experts
concede that there's no foolproof way to
ensure that shelters can be kept virus
free, and that there's a good chance
that situations will arise that were not
discussed or planned for. That's why
building flexibility and contingencies
into existing plans is crucial. One
resource to consider is NFPA 1616, Standard on Mass Evacuation, Sheltering,
and Re-Entry Programs, which provides
detailed guidance for how to develop
a shelter maintenance and improvement program to help officials to work
through the changes they may need to
make based on these new risks.
A significant X-factor in any disaster scenario is how well people in an
affected area comply with directives,
Serino said. "The public is probably
the biggest component in all of this.
It's more important than ever that
the public be an asset, not a liability,"
he said. Wearing masks, distancing,
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

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