Duties during hurricanes

[LisaRee 0]

I'm in Gulfport Mississippi and was just wondering if what I do during hurricanes is the same as other directors. We were lucky enough to get past Gustov this time with only tropical winds, but Katrina tore us apart down here a few years ago. We're on very high ground and didn't have to evacuate but I'm wondering what some of the nursing homes in do in case of storms.-- LisaRee

[themusiclady 1]

I took a booking from LaPorte on Saturday, they were busy evacuating the residents. Glad you did not get it bad.

[Jen 0]

My husband & I went to Gulf Port about 2 weeks after Katrina & served out of Trinity UM Church for a week, sleeping there & working in the soup kitchen, dispersing water, clothes, going into other towns passing out supplies, working in houses tearing down dry wall, etc. It was a blessing & something we'll never forget. I'm thankful you all didn't get it so hard this time. We don't live in a hurricane area, but I'm an AD in a very small town that faces possible evacuation due to flooding about every 2-3 years. We all work together to make arrangements for other nursing homes for our residents to go to in a city nearby, work with the disaster agencies, arrange transportation to evacuate, make sure all equipment, w/c's, etc. are labeled, contact families to reassure them that we're prepared, etc. Lots of work, but thankfully, we have never had to actually leave.

[heavenstar 0]

I live and work in Houston, but not in a nursing home-- I work in a retirement home. While it is a lot different, since Katrina and Rita, we now actively do lots of hurricane and disaster preparedness stuff. Somehow, I was lucky enough to get on the team (did I miss a meeting and got voted in???).

My job is to communicate with the residents and families every year (in May or June) and have a disaster preparedness workshop with the residents. In this meeting, I bring all of the supplies a person needs to sustain themselves for a week with no electricity or water.

I also have handouts that list everything, give important numbers (emergency evacuation and transportation registration) and our own personalized disaster plan. We are a high rise-- so we have special rules!

I show them how to work the crank radio (always their favorite) how much water is needed and what everything on the list is to be used for. The meetings take about 2 hours-- with all the translations we do.

During a hurricane, I plan on staying at work-- getting ready to help residents or mopping up water or boarding up windows. My family and pets can come to work with me.

 

While we definitely have different priorities during a storm (we must protect the building, the residents are responsible for themselves) we have had to be more proactive during the past three years. In fact, one of the first things I tell the residents is that they chose to live in an independent apartment complex because they want their independence. If they wanted someone to take care of them, they should move to assisted living or a nursing home.

 

Many of our residents evacuated during Rita with their families--thank God there were no problems with any of them, and most of the residents do not plan on being at their home during a storm. They plan on staying with their families. Of course there are many that cannot do that, and those will be staying, but we have a list of people who plan to stay and if we needed to evacuate the building, we could go by that list. Of course, then we would have the problem of getting someone down nine flights of stairs -- but the fire department would probably help us out there.

 

Angie

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm in Gulfport Mississippi and was just wondering if what I do during hurricanes is the same as other directors. We were lucky enough to get past Gustov this time with only tropical winds, but Katrina tore us apart down here a few years ago. We're on very high ground and didn't have to evacuate but I'm wondering what some of the nursing homes in do in case of storms.-- LisaRee

[mogreen 0]

Well you could use this time to talk about storms. You can use news paper articles and news broadcast to track the ones that your city has encountered recently. Or use the time for games or crafts or let the residents choose what they would like to do. Having a fun day sounds good too, you could even involve other staff to try to relieve some of the stress in the building.

[turtle 0]

Living in Florida, we have had a lot of practice in the last few years and are even now preparing for the possibility of Hurricane Ike. We are in a rural area with a building built to withstand a category five so are not likely to have to evacute (thank goodness!) Before the storm hits,everyone works together to get the building and the resident prepared. During the storm all staff, including activities, who are scheduled are required to be in the building. We keep as many of the residents as possible in their rooms during the storm so we don't have group activities but we do 1:1 and work to keep the residents calm. We also assist with meals, etc as we are all also CNAs. Afterwards, we help with clean-up, etc. We focus on whatever the residents need and for many of them it is a comfort to have a familiar friendly face to sit with them while the storm is raging. We have been fortunate so far to have only sustained minor flooding during the storms of the past few years. Our prayers are with everyone who is the path of any of these storms.

[LisaRee 0]

I appreciate the feed-back. We too have to board up windows and thank goodness we don't have to evacuate. I make sure to pay close attention to the tropic updates two or three times a day. We're allowed to bring immediate family with us and I have to give credit to my activity aides who worked with residents and some of our staffs children at the same time. Alot of our residents are low functioning right now so the least little thing can set them off. My aides are AWESOME and so are all staff who are here when we need them.

 

Turtle, I feel for you being in Florida and wish there were something I could do just incase you do get Ike. For all we know, we both may get it.

 

All in all, from the responses, I can see that we're all a very dedicated bunch of A.D.'s to do what we do during these storms. Either that or just plain crazy! (I'm alittle of both)

Edited September 5, 2008 by LisaRee