New survey results detail autism family needs during hurricanes

It’s been almost two years since Hurricane Ian devastated our neighborhoods. Family Initiative, a non-profit, partnered with Lee County to better understand hurricane readiness for the families they serve.

Through a survey that 100 autism families took over the past three months, there were many takeaways post-Ian.

Jessica Van Hart, the mother of Colby, said Family Initiative changed their lives for the better.

“I honestly thank God for finding them. They have been a blessing to Colby, myself and my whole family,” Van Hart said.

She’s not alone. There are many families in Southwest Florida in the same boat, and Family Initiative strives to help them, especially following Hurricane Ian.

“We responded pretty quickly to the needs of the families that we’re able to communicate with,” said Anjali Van Drie, the Vice President and Co-Founder of Family Initiative.

“The aftermath of no electricity, no water. The streets were terrible, the devastation, the stress that it puts on families and myself as a parent to take care of the needs that my son has,” Van Hart said.

Van Hart took Colby to a shelter at her husband’s work building, which has concrete.

“It was probably one of the most stressful things I’ve ever had to go through,” Van Hart said.

It was extra stressful because 26-year-old Colby has autism.

“I think that the biggest obstacles for us were the unknown. Our kids need to have structure, they need to have schedules, they need to know what’s coming next. It’s really hard to reassure your child that everything’s going to be okay. I think the biggest struggle is just the breaking routine,” Van Hart said.

Change, especially unexpected change, can be very stressful for those on the spectrum.
To be better prepared for a hurricane, Family Initiative sent a hurricane survey to 100 families.

Van Hart knew it was something she needed to do. She said, “What autism parents go through is completely different than the needs of your elderly or even just people that need to evacuate. We have unique needs for our children. So, I felt it was really important to take the survey so that we could put this together and have a conversation.”

“I think our goal in this is how do you take something that’s really awful and learn from it and do better,” said David Brown, the President and Co-Founder of Family Initiative.

Family Initiative wanted to know how to be better prepared for hurricanes.

Results

WINK News Reporter Olivia Jean sat down with Co-Founders David Brown and Anjali Van Drie to discuss the surprising results.

“Of all the families that we surveyed, only 10% of respondents said that they’re aware of the special needs hurricane shelter program. Amongst those families, another 50% of those families basically said to us [that] they were reluctant to go to the shelters because they weren’t sure what their experience might be like there. So, I think right away, we knew that we had a lot of work to do, to really educate advocate to our families about resources that were available,” Brown said.

The number one issue was downed fences, with concerns of those with autism running away.

“The number one thing that Anjali and I were contacted about after in was pull cages and fences. We have a lot of moms and dads that were very concerned about the elopement issues for the kids,” Brown said.

Another issue is access to clean laundry.

“There’s a little guy who comes to us every day and who wears the exact same outfit. So mom, bless her, every night washes that outfit, because of the sensory sensitivity. So there are particular shirts or particular shorts or particular socks that they can wear,” Van Drie said.

Another surprise issue was internet. Many kids rely on tablets throughout the day.

“People just accessing the internet that we had just the moms and dads are sitting back in the car air-conditioning or maybe taking a nap. Kids are in the backseat with their headphones on on their tablets,” Brown said.

68% of families dealing with autism plan to evacuate Lee County or Southwest Florida during the next major hurricane.

91% get the most reliable hurricane news from local news.

13% didn’t know about any local county resources.

Only 6% of eligible families registered for special needs shelter.

Only 23% have a solar charging device but devices are so important to their families.

35% of families’ most urgent recovery needs are repair items to prevent elopement.

The primary personal needs are daily/weekly laundry (60%) and cooling locations (54%).

You can view all of the results here.

Special Needs Shelters

Only 10% of families were aware of the special needs shelter program in Lee County.

The shelters are:

• Amanecer Elementary School
• Dunbar High School
• East Lee County High School
• Estero Recreation Center
• Florida Gulf Coast University Alico Arena
• Gateway High School
• Harns Marsh Elementary
• Harns Marsh Middle School
• Hertz Arena
• Island Coast High School
• Manatee Elementary
• Mirror Lakes Elementary School
• N. Fort Myers Academy of the Arts
• North Fort Myers Recreation Center
• Oak Hammock Middle School
• South Fort Myers High School
• Tortuga Preserve Elementary
• Treeline Elementary School
• Varsity Lakes Middle School
• Veterans Park Recreation Center

Family Initiative now has an 18-foot trailer to help families no matter where they live and used the survey results to help figure out what was needed inside. It includes air-conditioning and WI-FI. They said it is a game changer.

Take the survey here.

To learn more about Family Initiative, visit here.