8 die at Florida nursing home in Irma’s sweltering aftermath
"It's a sad state of affairs," Sanchez said. "We all have elderly people in facilities, and we all know we depend on those people in those facilities to care for a vulnerable elderly population."
Gov.
"I am demanding answers," he tweeted.
The home said in a statement that the hurricane had knocked out a transformer that powered the AC.
Exactly how the deaths happened was under investigation, with Sanchez saying authorities have not ruled anything out, including carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. He also said investigators will look into how many windows were open in the nursing home.
Across the street from the nursing home sat a fully air-conditioned hospital,
The deaths came as people trying to put their lives back together in hurricane-stricken
Not counting the nursing home deaths, at least 14 people in
At least five people died and more than a dozen were treated after breathing carbon monoxide fumes from generators in the
In
Altogether, more than 100 patients there were found to be suffering in the heat and were evacuated, many on stretchers or in wheelchairs. Patients were treated for dehydration, breathing difficulties and other heat-related ills, authorities said.
Nursing homes in
Calls to the owner and other officials at the
Through a representative, Carballo told the SunSentinel newspaper that the home has a back-up generator but that it does not power the air conditioning.
The nursing home was bought at a bankruptcy auction two years ago after its previous owner went to prison for Medicare fraud, according to news reports at the time of the sale.
The
As of Tuesday, the number of people without electricity in the steamy late-summer heat had dropped to 6.8 million — about a third of
Elsewhere around the state, a
And at the huge, 15,000-resident
"These people are basically prisoners in their own homes," said
"We need to make sure we're doing everything we can to keep our seniors safe during this difficult time," he said.
In the battered
"Things look real damaged from the air, but when you clear the trees and all the debris, it's not much damage to the houses," said
The Keys felt Irma's full fury when the hurricane roared in on Sunday with 130 mph (209 kph) winds. But the extent of the damage has been an unanswered question for days because some places have been unreachable.
In Marathon Key, a
She said she had yet to see any state or federal agencies or utility companies working on the ground yet. Her home had no electricity or running water, apart from a trickle of cold water that was good enough for a shower.
"It made me feel like normal," she said.
President
At the
Paulburn Bogle, a member of the housekeeping staff, said the place had been hot but manageable the past few days. The staff used fans, put cold towels and ice on patients and gave them cold drinks, he said.
"They were sick already. It's going to be tough to tell how much was the heat and how much of it was they were sick already," Mallak said.
"We need to know what happened to her," she said. "They haven't told us anything."
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