Salt Lake City

Mayor's Office of Access & Belonging

Emergency Preparedness

FEMA offers this short instructional video containing information specific to Americans with disabilities or other access and functional needs regarding emergency preparedness.

You can use FEMA’s ready.gov website for information about specific disabilities and how to best prepare for emergency events like earthquakes or fires that may happen around you. It is important to think about your life and your needs to be really prepared.  

Personal Disaster Preparedness Videos (with open captions and ASL)

Use Be Ready SLC to help you make an emergency family plan and build an emergency kit, and to learn about emergency events when they are happening.

Make a Plan

After a disaster you may not have access to a hospital or even a drugstore. Think about the overall health and safety needs of you and your family members when you make your family emergency plan. Consider what needs you or your family may have if you have to shelter-in-place or evacuate to a different location. It is important to plan for your daily needs and know what you would do if they become limited or unavailable. 

Be sure to:

  • Create a support network to help you plan for an emergency. Consider family, neighbors, friends, service providers, and faith-based and community groups.
  • Tell someone you trust where you keep your emergency supplies and give them a key to your home.
  • Sign up for emergency alerts from your community.
  • Keep contact information for local independent living centers, as well as support and services organizations, in a safe, accessible place.
  • Notify your utility provider if you are dependent on electricity to operate a life sustaining device.
  • Provide any necessary organizations or service providers with information about your functional needs and what you may require in an emergency. Keep that information up to date.
  • Work with in-home support services such as Meals on Wheels and Life Alert to personalize an emergency preparedness plan so you can keep in touch with them during and after an emergency.

Medical Support

  • Identify multiple locations to receive dialysis or other life-sustaining medical treatment. Work with your primary provider to create a plan to obtain and ensure essential services in case of a disaster.
  • If you or a family member has a wheelchair, know the size and weight of it and whether it is collapsible in case it has to be transported during an evacuation.
  • Show emergency contacts how to use wheelchairs or other assistive devices.
  • Develop back-up plans for personal assistance services, hospice care, or other forms of in-home assistance.

Transportation and Evacuation

  • Work with local transportation providers and/or disability services (e.g., Paratransit, Independent Living Centers) to plan ahead for accessible transportation.
  • Be ready to explain your specific needs, or those of a family member, to first responders and emergency officials so you receive the necessary support to safely evacuate and find shelter.

Build a Kit

In addition to having your basic survival supplies, an emergency kit should have items to meet your individual needs in various emergencies. Depending on your specific needs or the needs of a family member consider adding the following to your emergency kit:

Medical Supplies

  • Extra eyeglasses and/or hearing aids
  • Battery chargers and extra batteries for hearing aids, motorized wheelchairs, or other battery-operated medical or assistive devices
  • Extra medicine, oxygen, insulin, catheters, or other medical supplies you or a family member uses regularly

Documents

  • Medical insurance cards, Medicare/Medicaid cards, physician contact information, list of any allergies and medical history
  • Copies of medical prescriptions, doctor’s orders, and the style and serial numbers of the support devices you or your family member uses
  • Medical alert tags or bracelets, or written descriptions of you or your loved one’s support needs, in case you are unable to describe the situation in an emergency

Other

  • Supplies for a service animal

Be Informed 

  • Know what disasters could call for an evacuation and when to shelter in place.
  • Keep a NOAA Weather Radio tuned to your local emergency station and monitor TV and radio. Follow mobile alerts and warnings about severe weather in your area.
  • Download the FEMA app and get weather alerts from the National Weather Service for up to five different locations anywhere in the United States.
  • Download the SLC Mobile App and follow BeReadySLC on social media (link those) 

Salt Lake City & Utah Resources

Salt Lake City Special Needs Database

This is a voluntary registry for Salt Lake City residents to assist public safety personnel in identifying persons with disabilities or special needs. This database will be used by Salt Lake City Departments during emergencies/disasters to determine where persons with disabilities or other special needs reside. The information provided on this form will only be used by emergency personnel in the course of their duties To add your information to the database, fill out the online form

Be Ready SLC

Learn more about how you can be prepared for emergencies or disasters at Be Ready SLC.

Safe Neighborhoods 

The Schools Aid Families in Emergency (S.A.F.E.) Neighborhoods program provides training and information to help you and your neighborhood recover from major disasters.

Special Needs Utah

The State of Utah Special Needs Registry website allows residents with access and functional needs an opportunity to provide information to emergency response agencies so those agencies can better plan to serve them in a disaster or other emergencies. This registry is voluntary. To add your information to the database, fill out the online form

The information collected here will not be available to the public. It will only be shared with emergency response agencies to improve their ability to serve.

Be Ready Utah 

Be Ready Utah is the state’s page coordinated and is prepared by the State’s Emergency Management. It offers you information about state resources for families, communities and businesses.

Stay Connected with SLC911


Complaints that a Salt Lake City program, service, or activity is not accessible to persons with disabilities should be directed to:

Ashley Lichtle, ADA Coordinator
Office of the Mayor
451 South State Street, Room 345
Salt Lake City, UT 844114-5474
Phone: 801-535-7739
TTY: 711
Fax: 801-535-6331