Sherman Gillums, Jr. understands that people would rather not think about disasters. Who wants to ruin their day imagining a worst-case scenario that hasn’t yet arrived?
As Disability Coordinator and Director of the Office of Disability Integration and Coordination at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Gillums is working to not only ensure that FEMA supports people with disabilities in the event of a disaster, but that the community itself is ready. Collaborating with disability organizations and state, local, tribal and territorial partners, Gillums encourages people to be proactive. Pack a go bag. Make a plan with friends and family members. Identify evacuation routes and connect with local emergency management officials. Sign up for mobile alerts to stay apprised about severe weather.
“How do we best prepare people for the worst?” he says. “We do that by empowering people with the information they need to reduce as much uncertainty as possible.”
Gillums’ efforts are informed by his own experience. In 2007 — five years after he sustained a C6-C7 spinal cord injury in a car accident — wildfires came dangerously close to his San Diego home. “I could taste the soot in the air,” he says.
But he was both unprepared and unwilling to evacuate, skeptical that he would get the help he needed at an emergency shelter.
“I was concerned I’d be treated like a burden because of my unique needs and uncommon ways that I achieved independent function,” he says.
Gillums was lucky, but the experience has shaped his approach at FEMA.
“I began to think, ‘How do I think back to that decision point to encourage somebody to make a different decision than I did,’” he says. “That’s the key to my approach for FEMA’s Disability Integration preparedness efforts.”