This is a follow up on the the story of nursing home residents sent to a warehouse for Hurricane Ida.
Some background is available here:
https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_42a3a47e-1c8d-11ec-b392-47a2bc5ccc29.html?3246
In many states the regulations for assisted living and nursing homes vary a lot. That said in LA these facilities in certain parishes (counties) are required by law to have an evacuation plan.
QuoteEach summary of the emergency preparedness plan shall include and identify at a minimum:
(1) A primary sheltering host site outside the area of risk, verified by written agreements or contracts and any other alternative sheltering host sites that the nursing home may have.
(2) Proof of transportation or a contract with a transportation company, verified by a written transportation agreement or contract.
(3) Staffing patterns for evacuation, including contact information for such staff.
This in turn is submitted to the state for review:
QuoteC. Each summary of the emergency preparedness plan shall include and identify at a minimum:
(1) A primary sheltering host site outside the area of risk, verified by written agreements or contracts and any other alternative sheltering host sites that the nursing home may have.
(2) Proof of transportation or a contract with a transportation company, verified by a written transportation agreement or contract.
(3) Staffing patterns for evacuation, including contact information for such staff.
So basically a binder with a written plan and copies of all related documents is sent to the state who then ticks the boxes for each item on hand. If all items are present, the plan is deemed to meet minimum standards and approved.
That is the review process. "yep it has one of each item."
A plan is better than nothing and no plan survives the first shot but that is why you have a plan b & plan c. In this case the Plan A was really pathetic.
So lets recap Plan A: 700 people will move into an unoccupied warehouse without adequate sanitation but to address sanitary issues, there are 30 porta-potties (1 for 23 people), there are no laundry facilities planned and they will rely on takeout food to feed them. However everyone is going to sleep on their own air mattresses...oh and BTW the 700 people are elderly and ill. What could possibly go wrong with this plan?
Quote
A state surveyor visited Dean's warehouse on Aug. 27, two days before Hurricane Ida made landfall. The surveyor noted that Dean planned to move at least 700 nursing home residents to the site, that Dean planned to put them on air mattresses on the warehouse floor and that Dean planned to use 30 portable toilets to service the residents and staff during the evacuation, according to an inspection report.
The health inspector was also told that there wasn't going to be laundry or linen service for at least five days at the warehouse and that the nursing homes would primarily rely on a nearby church to provide food for the residents during the evacuation. The warehouse didn't have kitchen equipment, according to an inspection report.
With all of that information, the inspector still gave Dean's homes the go-ahead to move to the warehouse. Then, much of that plan went sideways.
Now in fairness to the approval to go ahead with Plan A the alternative was make them stay in the path of Hurricane Ida and accept responsibility for any issues due to that decision. It was too late to say no. However that is where any defense of that decision by me ends. What should have happened and to some extent it appears to have happened is that the person providing approval should have hit the alarm bell and started lining up extra attention to the site. Instead only inspectors (not resources) were sent.
Lets talk about Plan A going "sideways".I have never cooked for a very large crowd of people (beyond putting a turkey in the oven) but I do know that feeding 700 people 3 meals per day in a proper commercial kitchen with proper facilities is a hell of a lot of work. Then there is serving the food and cleaning up after. I am not experienced in that matter but I would expect to need a minimum staff of 10 people. That was the first thing to break down.
Quote
It's not clear what happened to the church that was supposed to feed the residents — health inspectors don't mention them in post-storm reports — but the nursing homes eventually started cooking food outside with propane tanks. In the days following the storm, the health inspectors said that residents' meals were meager and many were sleeping on dirty bedding.
Did I say 700 people? What are few more people? ... push over a bit ... 139 more people are showing up.
QuoteAfter the storm on Aug. 30, when Dean had moved 839 nursing home residents into the warehouse
Not a problem; everyone did fit inside.
Quote"The beds were placed side by side with mere inches between them, approximately 40 by 60 foot area with no isles (sic) or space other than 3-6 inches. These twin-size air mattresses were on the floor and the sheets had visible dirt from being treaded upon. Most residents lay on their beds in a morass of bedding and people," one inspector wrote on Aug. 31.
So "sideways" in this case means a reduced or lack of nutrition, over crowding (this is a high risk population to COVID) and no sanitation. Then the HVAC system failed. Can you say hot & humid? (92+ & 90%+ humidity).
QuoteNursing home residents have described a horrific ordeal: They slept on the floor on soggy mattresses, toilets overflowed and air conditioners stopped working. State inspectors who visited the facility documented instances of residents crying out for help — some in waste-laden diapers that went days without changing — to no avail.
Let me repeat this quote:
QuoteState inspectors who visited the facility documented instances of residents crying out for help.
Granted the people in these facilities do tend to have a high mortality rate and deaths do occur often in the facilities and the state did say that of the 15 people who died during this event "only" 5 were "storm related".
So it could have been much worse. :zomg:
QuoteOn Wednesday, officials had said the death count among the 843 evacuees had risen to 12. They stressed that just five of those deaths to date have been classified by coroners as "storm-related," a fact they repeated Thursday
:headbang:
There are many lessons that we as preppers can learn from this matter beyond the obvious ones. I submit this example to the UFOZS hive mind for further discussions of both the obvious lessons and not so obvious lessons.
Source documents:
https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_f3e21d18-2239-11ec-aaf0-4b71cd4d6ff7.html
https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_42a3a47e-1c8d-11ec-b392-47a2bc5ccc29.html?3246
https://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/2011/rs/title40/rs40-2009-25/
Wow.
That story was the lead on the Youtube reports from WWLTV for 3 or 4 days following Ida. I could hardly believe that anyone would think putting 800 vulnerable people into a warehouse would be A Good Idea.
If a "law" should be passed, I would make it a law that administration and business owners are required to share the physical facilities alongside those under their care during the duration of the stay and must share all bedding, bathroom, and meal experiences. I think that would solve a lot.
Quote from: woodsghost on October 01, 2021, 01:35:44 PM
If a "law" should be passed, I would make it a law that administration and business owners are required to share the physical facilities alongside those under their care during the duration of the stay and must share all bedding, bathroom, and meal experiences. I think that would solve a lot.
I like the logic. That sounds fair to me. After the levee failures in 2005 I in fact proposed (unsuccessfully) something similar at a public hearing. I suggested that the people who run the organization who maintain the levees be locked in a concrete room at the base of the lowest levee every time the flood gates were closed. For some reason the Levee Board Members were not amused at my "joke". They were even less amused when I told them I was not joking. :smiley_devil:
Right now there are several lawsuits and criminal investigations. The legal fees alone would likely pay for ~900 hotel rooms and room service for several days.
Still I think one critical lesson is that just having a plan is not adequate. Having a paper document may count but in reality that is simply a plan to fail.
Also lets not forget one of the crucial items that was done successfully. It was was to arrange the transport of 863 successfully (albeit to a poor location). The fact that this many people were moved is IMO amazing in and of itself. Mobility can provide options in a disaster.
If there was someone on the ground with the authority (or the cajones) to take charge and change the plan in the advance party (most likely the first few busses) it would have been possible to route the busses elsewhere to a better location.
So I think the first lesson for preppers in planning is to hope for success while planning on failure and be prepared to change the plan. Remember, hope is not a plan.
The second lesson is that an advance party should be sent out to "scout" the destination. Movement can be initiated while awaiting reports from the scouts but only if there is a safe alternate destination.