Surviving Florida's ill winds: what LTC providers learned from battling four hurricanes

It wasn't a record you'd want to set: the first state since Texas in 1886 to be ravaged by at least three major hurricanes in one season. Florida, as everyone knows, was hit by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne within the space of five weeks in August and September. (As of this writing, the hurricane season had several weeks to go until the traditional November 30 conclusion.) The personal devastation experienced by Floridians was immense, and many small businesses were put out of business for good. In the middle of it all were long-term care facilities housing some of the state's most vulnerable people. The facilities themselves, confronting not only storm damage but the prospects of a costly cleanup, were in frail condition, as well. How did they get through it? What did they learn? What happens next? Here are observations gleaned from providers and provider organizations by Edward Susman, a local writer on special assignment, and interviews with LTC association officials by Nursing Homes/Long Term Care Management Editor-in-Chief Richard L. Peck.

By Edward Susman: "For us, evacuation was never really an option," said Daryl Miller, director of communications for the Joseph L. Morse Geriatric Center, Inc., in West Palm Beach. West Palm Beach, a community of 100,000 people, took staggering hits from the Labor Day Hurricane Frances and the Yom Kippur Hurricane Jeanne, three weeks later in September. "Our facility is rated to withstand a Category Five hurricane," Miller said, "so we are prepared to ride these storms out." She spoke as Jeanne gathered strength in the Atlantic and poised itself to slam into the Palm Beach County-Martin County areas on Florida's east coast.