- Notify authorities of your needs before an emergency: Call non-emergency lines
of local police and fire departments, ambulance services and/or paramedics. - You may wish to sign up for PG&E’s Medical Baseline Program (online
https://www.pge.com), which offers extra notifications in advance of planned power shut
offs. - Inventory medical devices that rely on electricity. Read your user instructions or
call your distributor or device manufacturer to find out if your device can be used
with batteries or a generator. - Stock extra back-up batteries for each device.
- Have a week’s worth of supplies for use and cleaning of devices.
- See the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) publication, which includes a form
to help you collect information needed in an emergency:
https://www.fda.gov/media/80782/download. - The FDA also offers tips in English and Spanish for use of medical devices
during disasters: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/emergency-situations-medical-devices/fda-offers-tips-about-medical-devices-and-hurricane-disasters - See these two other resources about the use of home medical devices:
https://adata.org/factsheet/emergency-power and https://www.redcross.org/prepare/disaster/power-outage
October 27, 2019 4:17 PM