Five people are dead and 115 have been evacuated to a local hospital from a nursing home that had no air conditioning following Hurricane Irma, the police said Wednesday. Two employees of the nursing home, the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, said that it had power but that at some point the air conditioning stopped working. Three died at the facility and two more during the evacuation to a nearby hospital, city officials said. -------------snip----------------- Roughly 160 nursing homes in Florida remained without commercial power on Wednesday morning, according to the state’s tracking system. Most of those nursing homes lacked a generator that could run air conditioning. High temperatures were becoming a major concern.
The rehabilitation center is located across the street from Memorial Regional Hospital, the flagship facility of the Memorial Healthcare System and one of the largest hospitals in the state. An official from Memorial said that the healthcare network was helping with evacuating people from the rehabilitation center, which is not part of the Memorial system, and will take some to their other hospitals in the region. The facility’s administrator did not return messages left by The Washington Post. At a news conference, Florida Power and Light said it serviced portions of the facility. Robert Gould, the utility’s chief communications officer, said he understood that certain parts of the facility had power. He said Broward County did not list the facility as critical infrastructure — the places where restoring power is a top priority after a storm — in a hurricane planning meeting earlier this year. “This facility was not listed as a top critical” by Broward County, Gould said. “What we’ve seen is something extremely tragic that points to the need to having plans in advance when it comes to emergency preparation. I would be remiss if i didn’t say our deepest sympathies goes out to the families of those lost their lives,” Gould said.
Edited by AKSAR (09/13/1705:11 PM)
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