HOUSTON – Tina Kitzmiller sat in her sweltering apartment with the windows and doors open, hoping to catch no less than the slightest breeze, frustrated and apprehensive about her dog and her neighbors.
Days had passed since Hurricane Beryl slammed into the coast from the Gulf of Mexico on July 8, causing widespread destruction and cutting off power to greater than 2 million people, including the Houston retirement community where Kitzmiller lives. Outside temperatures reached no less than 90 degrees most days, and the warmth contained in the constructing was oppressive.
Kitzmiller recently moved there with Kai, her 12-year-old dog, shortly after enduring winds gusting over 90 miles per hour. May right under a blanket on the ground of the 35-foot RV she called home. She didn't need the medical care a nursing home would offer, and figured she and Kai could be safer in a senior living facility than within the RV. She assumed her latest home would have a backup power system no less than equal to that of the post offices where she worked for 35 years.
“I looked at the food. I looked at the activities,” said Kitzmiller, 61, now retired. “I didn't know I had to ask about a generator.”
Even after several extreme weather events – including a Winter storm in Texas 2021 which led to widespread power outages and a US Senate investigation — not much has modified for residents of long-term care facilities when natural disasters strike in Texas or elsewhere.
“There were some movements, but I think they were much too slow,” said David GrabowskiProfessor of health policy at Harvard Medical School. “We keep getting tested and we keep failing. But I think we're going to have to face this problem.”
An influence outage will be difficult for anyone, but older individuals are especially vulnerable to temperature changes as medications or illnesses affect their bodies. Ability to control heat And coldIn addition, some medications Cooling, while others cannot get too cold.
Federal guidelines require nursing homes to take care of secure indoor temperatures but don’t regulate how. For example, there is no such thing as a requirement that heating and air con systems be backed up by generators or other alternative energy sources. States are largely answerable for compliance, Grabowski said, and if states fall short in that regard, there is no such thing as a change.
While nursing homes are subject to such federal oversight, lower-level care facilities that provide some medical care—so-called assisted living—are regulated on the state level, so emergency preparedness regulations vary widely.
Some states have tightened these guidelines. Maryland adopted rules for generators in assisted living facilities after Hurricane Isabel, which left greater than 1.2 million state residents without power in 2003. Florida This applied to nursing homes and assisted living facilities in 2018 after Hurricane Irma caused deaths at a facility.
But that's not the case in Texas. And Texas has no regulations on generators for the roughly 2,000 assisted living facilities or the even less regulated independent living facilities like Kitzmillers.
In Texas and plenty of other states, there are generally no special regulations for apartment complexes that specifically cater to seniors, known within the industry as independent living facilities.
Nationally, assisted living and independent living facilities are the fastest-growing sectors within the senior living space. Residents of such facilities often have medical needs, Grabowski said, but for quite a lot of reasons, they decide to live in an environment that gives them more independence than a nursing home, which offers medical care. But that doesn't mean residents of those lower-level-of-care facilities are any less vulnerable to extreme temperatures when the facility goes out.
“If the heat in your home is too much for you, it’s unsafe,” he said.
Republican state representative. Ed Thompson has tried several times since 2020 to pass laws requiring assisted living facilities in Texas to have emergency generators. But the bills failed. He is just not running for re-election this 12 months.
“It's terrible what the state of Texas is doing,” Thompson said, blaming the greed of corporations and politicians who’re more excited by stirring up their base and raising their national profile than improving the lives of Texans. “How we treat our elderly says something about us – and they are not being treated right.”
Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, said on a press conference on 11 July that operators of nursing homes will probably be held accountable in the event that they fail to make sure the security of residents. “This facility is responsible for the health, safety and well-being of the patients and residents who stay there,” he said. told reporters“The responsibility lies with the respective institution.”
Under Texas LawRestoring power supplies to nursing, assisted living and hospice facilities ought to be a priority.
Resistance to increased oversight or government protection is not any surprise. Gregory Shelleysenior manager of the Harris County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program on the Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston. He said that while he believes the security and health of residents is the highest priority, he realizes that installing generators is pricey. He also said that some people within the industry proceed to imagine that extreme weather events are rare.
“But all of us in Houston have already learned this year that they are becoming more common,” Shelley said. “This is the third time since May that large parts of Houston have been without power for an extended period of time.”
Following the facility outages in 2021, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission conducted a voluntary survey According to the survey, 47% of assisted living facilities and 99% of nursing homes that responded reported having generators.
The U.S. Senate investigation into the 2021 Texas storm beneficial a statewide requirement that assisted living facilities have backup power to each maintain secure temperatures and keep medical equipment running.
A Annual Report 2023 Patty Ducayet, Texas' long-term care ombudsman, also beneficial mandating generators in nursing homes. The report suggested that every one nursing homes maintain secure temperatures in a location accessible to all residents. The report beneficial that nursing homes submit emergency plans to state regulators annually for review by state authorities. The recommendations weren’t adopted.
On July 15 – greater than per week after Hurricane Beryl – Kitzmiller said she just wanted the facility back. She praised the staff at her facility but said she was apprehensive about residents isolated on the second and third floors of her constructing, where it was hotter through the power outage. Some had been unable to refrigerate the medications they needed, she said. And without working elevators, many couldn’t get to the primary floor, where it was cooler.
Kitzmiller said she was particularly frustrated with corporations and politicians who had not yet solved the issue.
“It's their mothers, their grandmothers and their families in these homes, these institutions,” she said. “All I can think is, 'Shame on you!'”
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