I was up the morning of August 30th at 3:00 a.m. watching Anderson Cooper's 360 Katrina Report. A wicked thunderstorm kept me awake. AC's blog has this:
Teams from the DHH (LA Agency) set forth to test out hurricane readiness plans for the 72 nursing homes in the New Orleans area. They were checking to see if the nursing homes had things like adequate generators to power life support devices, sufficient transportation contracts to get residents out if the need arose and a place to shelter those residents in the days following a catastrophe.
The results of those surveys were mailed to the operators of the homes in July. The outcome?
Out of 72 nursing homes, only 21 of them complied with the minimum licensing standards for emergency preparedness. 32 nursing homes had multiple gaps in their emergency preparations -- not only did they not have generators, they also didn't have a plan for how or when to evacuate.
My comment: What are the nursing home operators waiting for? A gun to the head?
