Disaster-preparedness survey this week

LIHUE — The Kauai Emergency Management Agency (KEMA) is assisting the Department of Health’s (DOH) Kauai District Health Office to conduct a Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) survey to assess the emergency preparedness level of local residents.

Survey members will go door-to-door from Friday through Sunday to 30 census tracts that are weighted towards more populated areas within the county.

Seven houses within each tract will be systematically selected and surveyed.

Survey teams are comprised of DOH staff with support from KEMA, Kauai Medical Reserve Corps, American Red Cross and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers.

Selected households will be asked about emergency preparedness, communication preferences, health status and evacuation plans following a disaster.

Team members will have on vests identifying themselves as part of the DOH survey team and will carry identification cards.

All survey responses will be confidential, and survey teams will not be collecting names or addresses.

Survey results will build upon last year’s efforts to establish a baseline for the percentage of Kauai households that have the supplies necessary to support their families after an emergency. This data will help to inform county and state emergency planners, as well as enable DOH to best meet the community’s health needs following a disaster.

The CASPER survey methodology was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a way to rapidly assess the health and other resource needs of a community after a disaster.

Alternatively, the methodology can also be used in a non-disaster scenario to assess the current preparedness levels of a community.

Kauai residents who have questions about the CASPER survey or the survey teams conducting the assessments can call Lauren Guest, DOH public health preparedness planner, at 241-3496.