re: #276 Stanley Sea

Oh my god. I’m in tears. That hits very close to home for me.

The assisted living facility I work in had 53 residents left in our care to ride out the hurricane on Friday night. Some didn’t have any family nearby, some refused to go with the families, and believe or not, some were surprised to find themselves left behind since their families told them they would pick them up and then evacuated without them.

As soon as it was light yesterday people started bringing their moms and dads back to the community. We had no power and were in disaster mode, delivering only cereal for breakfast, dry sandwiches and chips for lunch, etc., but people brought ‘em back anyway. One resident kept saying she couldn’t see anything because it was so dark, but her daughter left her with us anyway. I started telling people, “I would urge you to walk to your mom’s apartment and see how dark the hallways are, how dark her apartment is, and if you feel like she can navigate that OK, by all means bring her back home.”

I learned when our facility flooded in May 2016 that no matter what we do, there are some people who will feel that we didn’t do enough or the right thing. I was not disappointed, as people who evacuated to safety criticized some of the choices we made, even though we stayed and rode out Harvey with their loved one and put ourselves in harm’s way to do so.