ABSTRACT
This chapter examines additional factors that shape vulnerability in disasters including age, income, forced migration and climate refugee status. It explains the additional features that make some more vulnerable than others and the implications of the features. The chapter describes workers to be critically aware of the needs of all people and to be especially alert to characteristics that may impact people’s vulnerability and capacity to cope in emergencies. It explores the experiences of a hidden and vulnerable population of female migrant farm workers in Volusia County. Two organisations were formed to foster communication and planning among vulnerable populations, disaster service organisations and emergency management. Older people are particularly vulnerable when community support systems and particularly informal supports, break down, when family members are forced to move away and when their isolation limits their access to post-disaster resource distribution and information.
