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Essay On Hurricane Irma

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For much of Florida, Hurricane Irma brought great devastation; in total, 58 deaths were directly attributed to it. However, for one nursing home, The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, the aftermath was even worse than the storm. On Monday morning, it was discovered that a fallen tree had knocked out the cooling system at the facility. Though calls were made to their air-conditioning service company and to their power company, no person was sent to fix it. According to the power company, Florida Power & Light, the nursing home was not a “top-tier” priority, while nearby Memorial Regional Hospital was. As temperatures rose into the low 90’s, fans and portable air-conditioners were brought in from the hospital in a drastic attempt to cool the building. The nursing home then notified Broward County Emergency Operations Center that it had lost power, but did not request additional assistance. Some residents and visitors became concerned about the rising temperatures, but no calls were made to emergency services. However, on Wednesday morning, the heat became too much to bear. At 3am, 4am, and 5am, emergency services were dispatched to the nursing home to transport patients with cardiac and respiratory issues. Noticing that many ambulances had been dispatched in a short span of time, the local fire department sent additional firefighters to inspect the …show more content…

They had no choice-they could not leave the colony without facing certain doom on their own. In this scenario, the nursing home residents were the colonists, and the employees were their leaders. Many of the residents suffered from Alzheimer's and Dementia and were incapable of leaving on their own. They put their faith into the employees of the nursing home; the residents and their families expected that they would be kept safe. By not evacuating the facility, the employees effectively caused the death of 8

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