Eye on the Tropics

Hurricane Irma deaths prompt rule requiring Florida assisted living facilities to have generators

By Lauren Seabrook, WFTV.com
By Lauren Seabrook, WFTV.com
When Hurricane Irma hit Florida, millions of people lost power, including an assisted living facility in Hollywood where 11 people ultimately died of heat exhaustion.
The deaths prompted Gov. Rick Scott to issue an emergency declaration for assisted living facilities, which requires the installation of industrial generators, regardless of the number of beds they provide.
The move has upset owners of smaller facilities, which are held to the same standards of much larger assisted living centers.
“There’s no differentiation at all between a five-bed facility and a 500-bed facility,” Barbara’s Sunny Day Assisted Living owner Susie Barrett said.
“I think it’s a knee-jerk reaction to what happened in Broward County,” Faith House Assisted Living owner Carlos Durand said.
Both facilities ran generators when they lost power during Hurricane Irma and were able to keep temperatures inside in the mid-80s.
Scott’s order requires that assisted living facilities have a permanently wired generator powerful enough to keep temperatures at or below 80 degrees in two common areas.
It also requires that each site have at least four days of fuel available.
The requirement goes into effect in mid-November.
“It could be up to a $10,000 endeavor for each house, and I have two houses,” Barrett said. “That potentially could put me out of business.”
Durand understood why the rule was necessary, but said there needed to be varying degrees of regulation, not a blanket rule.
“I get it,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. But to just impose this mandate, this emergency rule, on us … it’s just not reasonable or feasible, to be honest.”

Cox Media Group

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