Concerns are growing among emergency managers, as the United States enters into what has traditionally been the nation’s disaster season. While many regions are already struggling to handle the impact of COVID-19, disaster-response shelters are working on figuring out how to help those displaced by natural disasters, while not putting them at risk of exposure to disease. “All of these activities that we do during and after disasters are activities that require a lot of people to be in close proximity to each other. And that is the exact opposite of what we need to do to keep people safe from Covid-19,” said Samantha Montano, assistant professor of emergency management and disaster science at the University of Nebraska to The New York Times. FEMA has already started reacting, recommending workers engage in social distancing, while also limiting the number of disaster victims who can be in their field offices at one time.
However, this distancing isn’t always easy, as temporary shelters in places such as gyms or churches face an influx of those who have been temporarily displaced from their homes. The American Red Cross, which runs many of these temporary shelters, has worked to establish new guidelines by implementing screening for evacuees, and increasing the spacing between cots to reduce the risk of transmission.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/climate/virus-fema-disaster-aid-shelter.html
