Where do the Autistic Crips Go?

In a few months, the California wildfires will be back.

We don't realize how much more disabling the climate change is for the disabled

Where Do the Autistic Crips Go?

I’m an autistic crip with sensory disabilities.

One of my many labels, too many to recount. 

Crips are not priority when natural disaster strikes.

2005 

... Katrina Disabled abandoned by caretakers

2018 

...Paradise CampFire, more of the same. 

We are ever the forgotten, not-accounted-for divergents. 

September 2020, 

...Bay Area Skies glowed red

Nuclear orange sky from countless wildfires. 

Evacuations were abound even with Covid around. 

It just was not safe to social distance at home. 

An autistic crip, I will just call him Zee 

Wildfires by his home, the air not fit to breathe.

He had legs to walk out, his was a different disability

But where would Zee go, evacuation is hardly easy

A shelter was not a place he could hang out. 

Sensory sensitivities, food allergies, social anxiety, compromised immunity. 

…. On top of sheer uncertainty. 

Where oh, where can autistic crips go?

Shelters are planned for the non-crip mindbody

Smoked filled air, but my home not in path of fire

Zee came, stayed a few days with me. 

It was not easy but it was better than a shelter.

Zee had a place to go for this round of emergency

The fires came close but his home did not catch fire. 

He was able to go back to his own home eventually

But where did the other autistic crips go?

Where will I go if this happens to me?

Next year, 

... the wildfires will be back.

Prepare and plan, says the authority?

Pack a bag with all that you need.

But...

How do you prepare for something like this?

How does one prepare sensory sensitivities and anxiety?