You know you are getting old when...

Tuesday September 15, 2009

You know you are getting old when you start to worry about your parents as if they were the children rather than you. My mother had been at my house visiting and wanted to drive back to her house during a thunderstorm. Mother does very well to be 77 years old but her hearing is diminished and her reaction time isn’t what it once was. The idea of her driving in a thunderstorm did not seem wise. I finally convinced her to wait until the storm had passed before leaving.

What would happen if my mother had to evacuate by herself? She would probably need to drive through the very weather conditions I now was trying to keep her out of. The car would also have to be loaded during bad weather. Great! Now I have a brand new issue to worry about. I guess we all need to be concerned about how our elderly relatives would manage in an evacuation. Maybe a lot of these seniors could not handle an evacuation and this is why they decide to stay in unsafe conditions.

In Florida the law requires that evacuation assistance be available to individuals with special needs. All elderly persons who would not be able to evacuate by themselves are urged to contact their local emergency management agency. It is important to determine if you qualify for this critical assistance. Registration with the local emergency management agency before a disaster hits is required so don’t wait. You don’t want to end up as a statistic. You want to be a survivor.

Additional evacuation information is available at www.wineandchocolateplan.com