A Hurricane Is Coming and Mom Is in Assisted Living — What Happens

In this article

1. Rule out the worry that nobody planned for this
2. What the generator rule actually requires
3. The part of the rule a brochure will not mention
4. Who to call, in the order to call them
5. If the community shelters in place
6. If the community evacuates
7. If you want to bring your parent home for the storm
8. What this means when you are choosing a community

When a hurricane heads for Florida and your parent lives in assisted living, one of two things happens: the community shelters in place on its own emergency power, or it evacuates its residents to a safer building, and Florida law requires it to have planned for both before the storm ever forms. Your job as family is not to make the plan. It is to know which plan your parent's community will use, how it will reach you, and what to do if you want to bring your parent home instead.

Rule out the worry that nobody planned for this

The fear most families carry is that a storm hits and the staff improvise. Florida does not allow that. Florida's emergency management rule for assisted living requires every assisted living community to keep a written emergency management plan built on a state form, and the county emergency management agency is the final authority that reviews it. The plan has to cover residents who stay in the building (supplies, food and water, staffing, emergency power) and residents who have to leave (who goes, how their records and medications travel, transportation, and where they will shelter).

So the plan exists. What you want is the part of it that applies to your parent.

What the generator rule actually requires

After Hurricane Irma in 2017, when residents of a South Florida nursing home died in a building that lost its air conditioning, Florida rewrote the emergency power rules for long term care. For assisted living, the emergency environmental control rule is specific:

• An alternate power source must keep the air at or below 81 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 96 hours after a power loss.
• A larger community must keep 72 hours of fuel on site. A small home must keep 48 hours.
• The plan must be approved by county emergency management, with proof sent to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
• A community whose plan is to evacuate still has to meet the rule.

You do not have to take anyone's word for whether a community complies. The Agency for Health Care Administration publishes a generator status dashboard on its emergency preparedness page that families can search by county.

The part of the rule a brochure will not mention

Here is the fact that matters most and gets said least. The rule does not require air conditioning in every room. It allows a cooled area that is smaller than the whole building, as long as it gives at least 20 square feet per resident. That is legal, and for a short outage it is sensible, but it means that during a long one your parent may spend the hot hours in a shared common room rather than in their own bed.

That applies to every community in the state, ours included. So when you ask about a storm plan, do not stop at "do you have a generator." Ask which rooms it cools.

Who to call, in the order to call them

If the community shelters in place

If the plan is to stay, expect the community to stock food, water and medications ahead of time, to bring in extra staff who stay through the storm, and to move residents into the cooled area if the power fails. Phone lines and cell towers can go down even when the building is fine, so agree in advance on who in your family is the one contact the community calls, and keep that person's phone charged.

Visiting during the storm is usually a bad idea. Roads close, and staff need to focus on residents. Plan to check in by phone before landfall and again once the wind drops.

If the community evacuates

When a building is in a zone under an evacuation order, or its plan calls for leaving, residents move to another location named in the plan, often another licensed building. Florida requires the community to send each resident's records and medications along and to report the evacuation to the county and to the state within 6 hours of the order. It must also give the state a contact person who answers the phone around the clock until the building is reoccupied.

Two things help your parent most here. First, make sure the community has a current list of medications and your parent's doctor, because those travel with them. Second, ask where residents go, since the receiving building may be farther away than you expect, and a familiar face on the phone matters to someone who has been moved overnight.

If you want to bring your parent home for the storm

You can, and some families do, but think it through. Your parent leaves a building with emergency power, staff and medications on hand for a house that may lose power for days. If you do take your parent with you, tell the administrator in writing, collect a supply of every medication, and agree on when your parent will return.

If your parent still lives at home and needs help to evacuate, Citrus County keeps a special needs registry for residents who need transportation or medical care during an evacuation. Register early in the season through the Florida Department of Health in Citrus County, not the week a storm is named.

What this means when you are choosing a community

Hurricane planning is a fair thing to judge a community on, and a good administrator will be glad you asked. Ask to see where the cooled area is during your visit, and ask how the last storm went. A specific answer about a specific storm tells you more than any document.

If you are comparing options across the county, our guide to assisted living in Citrus County lists every community side by side, and you can read how our two communities are run. When you are ready, schedule a visit and bring the four questions above. For a sense of daily life on the coast, including storm season, see Homosassa for seniors.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to assisted living residents during a hurricane in Florida?

The community either shelters in place on emergency power or evacuates residents to another location, following a written emergency plan reviewed by county emergency management. Ask the administrator which one applies to your parent's building.

Do Florida assisted living facilities have to have generators?

They must have an alternate power source able to keep a cooled area at 81 degrees or below for at least 96 hours after a power loss, with fuel on site. The cooled area can be smaller than the whole building, at 20 square feet per resident.

Will my parent's room have air conditioning if the power goes out?

Not necessarily. Florida allows a community to cool only part of the building during an outage, so your parent may spend hot hours in a shared common room. Ask which rooms the generator cools.

How do I check if an assisted living community meets the generator rule?

The Agency for Health Care Administration publishes a generator status dashboard on its emergency preparedness page, searchable by county, that shows whether a community complies with the emergency power rules.

Who do I call if I have a concern about my parent's care during a storm?

Start with the administrator. If that does not resolve it, the Florida Long Term Care Ombudsman Program offers free, confidential help to assisted living residents at (888) 831-0404.

Sources

• Florida Administrative Code 59A-36.025, emergency environmental control for assisted living facilities
• Florida Administrative Code 59A-36.019, emergency management
• Agency for Health Care Administration, emergency preparedness resources
• Citrus County Sheriff's Office, emergency management phone numbers
• Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Long Term Care Ombudsman Program
• Florida Department of Health in Citrus County, special needs shelter registration

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Written by

Cameron Hernando Clark

Community Relations Director

Cameron Hernando Clark is the Community Relations Director for The Manors of Citrus. He writes this family guide to help Citrus County families make sense of assisted living and memory care, drawing on the day to day of running two family owned communities on Florida's Nature Coast.