TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com publisher calls for return to original hurricane community awareness plan in Florida to protect seniors

As the country enters a new Hurricane season, Daniel Hines, the publisher of www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com , one of the nation's leading seniors' web sites has called for a return to the original Community Awareness Plan devised by Dr. Gema Hernandez ( www.communitiesforlife.com ) , former head of the state's Department of Elder Affairs to ensure the safety of seniors.

“www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com believes that it should be a paramount concern of local government to protect the safety and security of our elders from natural disasters, " Hines explains. "It is therefore important that communities begin to evaluate how ready they are to face the next natural disaster.

“We encourage communities nationwide to follow the Elder Ready Community: A Community for Life© program as copyrighted by the author Dr. Gema G. Hernandez, former director of elder affairs for the state of Florida, ” says Hines. “The program as designed by Dr Hernandez, (1998) helps transform cities and counties into Communities for Life: Elder Ready, Children Friendly and Family Focused.

”Communities should make sure they address all key questions identified in the original program which includes a section on Hurricane and Natural disaster,” Hines continues. “This means that that for a community to be Elder Ready, the community need to include in their survey instruments the Hurricane Readiness evaluation checklist that was part of the original Elder Ready Program.”

Elders in Florida and in the nation have been led to believe that the Community for a Lifetime Award signed by Governor Bush means that their communities have completed a safety and security evaluation based on the steps and protocols described in the Elder Ready: Communities for Life Program© .

“This is not necessarily the case” says Dr. Hernandez. “The original steps of the program included a Hurricane and Disaster component as well as a traffic safety component and a health and environmental protection components.

”Unfortunately, many critical pieces of the Elder Ready Program as recognized by the National Governors’ Association have been dropped leaving elders exposed to the same barriers and the same dangers that existed before.”

Dr. Hernandez says the label of being a Community for a Lifetime neighborhood could mislead elders who are given the impression that the communities receiving such award has complied with all the changes required to receive such designation conclude Dr Hernandez.

Contact www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com if you would like to receive information about the Hurricane/Natural Disaster community survey or obtain a copy of this section of the survey by visiting www.communitiesforlife.com .