Storm Evacuations: Elderly were left with weak safety net

[Thom Little]

Hundreds of nursing homes in Texas and Louisiana had no evacuation plans, despite state requirements, or made arrangements that were doomed to fail during the chaos caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, a Houston Chronicle review has found.

Thousands of Gulf Coast nursing home residents faced preventable dangers because the safeguards meant to protect them were both ignored and inadequate, according to a Chronicle survey of 45 Texas nursing homes, a review of more than 80 evacuation plans and interviews with officials in Louisiana's 63 parishes.

In fact, some of the most troubling scenes from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita — the elderly sweltering on buses without air conditioning, festering in ill-equipped shelters in schools and churches, or taking refuge in coastal zones vulnerable to another storm — were intended arrangements laid out in approved evacuation plans.

Regulations in Texas, Louisiana and at the federal level require all nursing homes to establish emergency plans that include arrangements for shelter, transportation and supplies to care for the elderly and frail, though they have no additional requirements for homes in areas vulnerable to hurricanes.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3516805.html

[roguevalley]

1. I would have carried my mom and dad out on my back if necessary.

this is unacceptable. totally. people who helped build this country shouldn't be left to die when they are the most vulnerable. the law of three will get the ones responsible for this atrocity.