There are seven nursing homes involved. Either they are all part of the same chain of health care organization with management making decisions on evacuation or they were all told where to take their residents to a warehouse. The evacuation plan was very faulty.
September 4, 2021
The state of Louisiana (click here) has ordered the "immediate closure" of seven nursing homes that evacuated residents to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish to ride out Hurricane Ida.
State health officials confirm seven of the residents have since died. Several others were hospitalized after officials said they faced squalid conditions in the Independence warehouse after the Category 4 hurricane moved through.
News of the nursing home closures broke Saturday in tweets sent out by the Louisiana Department of Health, citing state health officer Dr. Joseph Kanter and LDH Secretary Dr. Courtney N. Phillips.
"What happened in Independence is reprehensible, and I know there are many families hurting as a result," Phillips said.
Kanter said that the state is "taking immediate action" to protect public health. He called what happened to the residents and the lack of regard for their wellbeing an "affront to human dignity."...
