Online Assessment Tool Evaluates Emergency Shelters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and partners have developed an environmental health shelter assessment form (available in English and Spanish) that covers general areas of environmental health, such as food safety, sanitation, and service and companion animal care.
Shelters provide refuge for communities and at-risk populations during and after emergencies and disasters, CDC said. Effective emergency response requires that environmental health practitioners rapidly assess the health and safety of the shelter environment for these populations.
The assessment form also provides space for listing immediate needs along with guidance and information that environmental health practitioners and shelter managers can use with existing plans, procedures, resources, and management systems.
For more information, visit www.emergency.cdc.gov/shelterassessment.