Inside a sweltering nursing home, a crisis unfolded Wednesday as 150 centers across Florida still lacked power days after Hurricane Irma ravaged the state.
Firefighters and medics responding to an emergency call in Hollywood, north of Miami, found three people dead inside a building whose second floor the police chief later described as “extremely hot.”
Altogether, city officials said eight people between the ages of 71 and 99 had died, but the causes were not yet determined. An investigation of possible criminal negligence has begun, Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez told reporters.
The deaths at the for-profit Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills illustrate the perils that can persist and even increase in the aftermath of a major disaster for the elderly and medically fragile.
Heat is a top killer after hurricanes and disasters cause power outages, said Dr. Thomas Kirsch, director of the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health. Kirsch noted that hundreds of elderly people died in the 1995 Chicago heat wave and when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
The temperatures in Broward County, north of Miami, have reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 C) in the three days since Irma smashed into Florida on Sunday.
“We often see that injuries and deaths after disaster in the United States are more common than those actually caused by the disaster itself,” Kirsch said.
After losing its full air conditioning on Sunday, the facility placed eight portable air coolers throughout the building and fans in the halls, state officials said in an emergency order late Wednesday. Officials also contacted the power provider, the state said.