HOLLYWOOD, Fla. _ As hundreds of thousands remain without power in the wake of Hurricane Irma, a South Florida community on Wednesday awoke to devastating news of an increased death toll.
Eight people died at a nursing home in Hollywood that had limited power, according to local officials. They gave no immediate details on the cause of the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills. Police evacuated 115 people from the facility, and several are in critical condition at hospitals.
The nursing home, like many other facilities and houses in the area, has been without full power since Irma hit the region on Sunday.
"Right now the building has been sealed off," Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said at a news conference. "We believe at this time they may be related to the loss of power in the storm. We're conducting a criminal investigation, not ruling anything out at this time."
Sanchez said the air conditioning at the facility was out, but it remained under investigation whether power was entirely cut. He declined to answer questions regarding whether a generator was running inside.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he would "aggressively demand answers on how this tragic event took place."
"This situation is unfathomable," Scott said. "Every facility that is charged with caring for patients must take every action and precaution to keep their patients safe _ especially patients that are in poor health."
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said he is asking the secretary of health and human services to look into what happened.
State law mandates that nursing homes have emergency preparation plans in place _ including emergency power options _ for natural disasters.
"In the days prior to the storm and through today, we have been in regular communication with our facilities to help coordinate needs and ensure proper implementation of the emergency management plans each facility is required to have," the Florida Health Care Association, an advocacy organization for geriatric health care providers, said in a statement. "We are continuing to actively work with local, state, and federal officials _ and the appropriate utility and aid organizations _ to ensure that the needs of the residents in these facilities are met."
In Miami-Dade County, nearly 442,000 customers had outages out of 1.1 million customers in total, according to Florida Power & Light. In Broward County, 300,000 were without power and in Palm Beach about 260,000 outages were reported, according to the company. Florida Power & Light estimates it will restore power to all of its customers in South Florida by the weekend.
Rising temperatures and a lack of power have made it difficult for the elderly and children in the days since Irma. In Hollywood, where the nursing home is located, temperatures on Wednesday were forecast to soar into the 90s. Officials from the Miami-Dade Public School District said schools will remain closed the rest of the week because of power issues.
The continued lack of power in South Florida has forced people to change their lifestyles and, in some cases, to find alternate short-term housing.
"It's just been very hard, especially for our son," said Yulayki Guillen, 24, who was found at a downtown hotel Wednesday along with her husband, mother and son, Luis, 5.
The family spent the night in the hotel, paying about $200, after several difficult evenings without electricity in their condominium north of downtown.
"Our son was very uncomfortable _ he couldn't sleep, he was sweating, and he was out of his routine," said Guillen, sitting in the lobby of the hotel with her family. "So we decided to come here, at least there's air conditioning. Luis likes it here. He wants to stay."
Food is another issue. Many stores remain closed because of the lack of electricity, meaning people are converging on the relatively few shops and eateries that are open. Waits are often considerable.
"Even to get fast food at a Burger King or McDonald's, there was a line around the corner," noted Guillen.
Since Irma made landfall Sunday, 13 people in Florida were killed in storm-related circumstances _ in some cases during the cleanup efforts _ in addition to those who died at the nursing home. Elsewhere, Irma was blamed for four deaths in South Carolina and two in Georgia. At least 37 people were killed in the Caribbean.
President Donald Trump plans to visit Naples, Fla., on Thursday to meet with first responders and residents affected by the storm.
