Miami Mayor Francis Suarez Tours Assisted Living Facilities Ahead Of Hurricane Dorian
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Nursing homes throughout South Florida have been taking precautions ahead of Hurricane Dorian.
On Friday, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez toured several assisted living facilities to make sure patients are OK.
"I wanted to make sure to come to see them in person because oftentimes, they don't have anyone to take care of them," Suarez said.
Three days after Hurricane Irma swept through in September of 2017, patients at the rehabilitation center at Hollywood Hills began to die.
"I can tell you they didn't do enough these are trained professionals that should've been aware of the environmental hazards they were taking place in the facility and they chose to ignore them," police said.
Twelve patients lost their lives in the sweltering heat after the hurricane knocked out the facility's air conditioning.
Four people have been charged with aggravated manslaughter in that case.
Now, ahead to hurricane Dorian
Mayor Suarez is ensuring that won't happen in Miami-Dade.
"We learned a tremendous amount from Irma. We learned that our elderly are the most vulnerable," Suarez said.
"If there is an electricity shortage they don't have the means to get water, ice, food, so we made sure to have those provisions on hand."
The mayor visited three nursing facilities Friday where he talked with patients.
He also went along with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue early in the morning to inspect assisted living facilities.
"We inspected them to make sure they had active fire systems sprinkler systems and active generators."
The mayor says Miami-Dade Fire Rescue inspected over 150 assisted living facilities. They also checked group homes to make sure their generators were working properly.
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