Eight die in sweltering Florida nursing home without power in Irma’s aftermath

Eight people died at a nursing home when the hurricane knocked out power and the facility lost air conditioning. They found three people dead and evacuated 145 people to hospitals, many on stretchers or in wheelchairs, authorities said.

The victims’ identities have not been released as this time.

The Florida Health Care Association, an industry group, said it was informed that 64 of the state’s 683 nursing homes did not have full power services restored as of Thursday morning.

The nursing home said it was prepared for the hurricane, which slammed into Florida early Sunday morning. It said it has “flagged” facilities without power to the Agency for Health Care Administration so utilities can prioritize locations with the greatest needs.

When asked whether police responded quickly enough to a distress call, Sanchez said that there is dispute about when exactly the call came in, though he estimated that it was about 6 a.m. Trump met with first responders and members of the military in an airport hangar and then traveled to an emergency food and water distribution center in Fort Myers, Florida. For residents who stay longer periods, the website indicates The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills had higher-than-average incidences of falls with major injuries, urinary tract infections and pressure ulcers.

At least 35 of the evacuated nursing home patients were admitted to Memorial Healthcare System hospitals, spokeswoman Kerting Baldwin said.

As a precautionary measure, police checked 42 more nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the city of Hollywood, Sanchez said.

A spokeswoman for the nursing home said the center “is cooperating with all regulators and authorities as it relates to the ongoing investigation”, said Alia Faraj-Johnson. The state, too, has its own lousy record of regulation.

President Donald Trump, pressed on whether back-to-back deadly hurricanes have changed his views on climate change, dodged the question on Thursday by contradicting past comments he made about the size of storms that have rocked Texas and Florida.

Raelin Storey, a spokeswoman for the city, said the facility had some power early Wednesday, but “the building’s air-conditioning system was not fully functional”. In Miami Dade, WLRN reporter Nadege Green found elderly residents in a series of Coconut Grove senior-living apartments who remained trapped, no elevator, no electricity; on Tuesday, about 50 residents of a senior-citizens tower in Miami’s Civic Center neighborhood damaged by Irma were being taken to a shelter. She said Hibbard told her, “I can’t breathe”.

And to think: We nearly escaped Hurricane Irma’s ire without a senseless loss of life.

By Wednesday, eight of the nursing home’s residents had died.

The “all-hazards” requirement is just one of the many new rules coming from CMS on November 16: In addition to having a plan that can adapt to multiple potential emergencies, SNFs must work on a communication strategy that involves other providers in the area, and conduct regular training and drills.

Josh Levy, the mayor of Hollywood, said he urged mayors and county commissioners across the state to urge residents to check on elderly neighbors in their communities.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said on Thursday that more than 38,000 federal personnel are now working to respond to Hurricane Irma, including staff from the military and civilian agencies.