Database helps cities determine who needs assistance

With hurricane season underway, county officials are turning their attention to the most at-risk population.

Broward’s Vulnerable Population Registry program was created in 2006. The program is designed to assist people with special needs during storms and other emergen- cies

Many can’t leave their homes, and phones and power lines often go down during powerful storms. By registering residents with the program, emergency services can check in on those who require assistance.

“This came out as part of the action after Hurricane Wilma in 2005,” said Joel Mariani, emergency management coordinator. “[We] determined that there were citizens who had vulnerabilities due to medical conditions, and if they were suddenly without electricity, they’d need special care.”

The full registry rolled out in 2007.

The registry essentially serves as a database for local emergency services to use, said Robin Floyd, evaluation and planning coordinator.

“The communities then use

program

was

our data to determine who in their city has identified themselves as someone who might need assistance in the event of a hurricane. It’s up to the city how they would manage it,” Floyd said. “… We maintain the database and offer training to city representatives on how to access the data, how to … sort through it to manage it in the most effective way.”

The database has roughly 2,500 people, and “it will continue to grow as people involved in other programs in the area reach out to the citizens,” she said.

There are three ways residents can register for the program, Mariani said: call your individual municipality; call the Broward County Call Center at 954-831-4000, or go to Broward.org/Hurricane/Registry.

Don Crinklaw can be reached at dcrinklaw@tribune.com.