despite a state mandate we found
hundreds of nursing homes and assisted
living facilities still do not have an
approved plan in place while the new six
investigator Adriana wyszynski she's
been really following all of this she
joins us now and Adriana why are many
places having to take this kind of
gamble in the middle of hurricane season
right in the middle of hurricane season
well that many of them say they don't
have a choice
and have filed an extension with the
state that's because they're caught in
the middle of a giant waiting game as
they wait for equipment to come in
permits to get approved and electricians
to fit them all in if there is one more
hurricane we will not be able to comply
yo let pre-sell is the administrator at
Golden Cove assisted living center in
Orlando and has five residents currently
under her care she says she's been
waiting a total of three months just to
get an electrician out here to install a
propane tank for her new generator they
have threatened us that if we don't get
this done at the certain time they gonna
close us down they gonna find us how
they going to find us if we are trying
she says one of the biggest challenges
administrators like her are facing now
getting permits to approve all of these
necessary changes I know that in one
County right now permits are taken
almost thirty five days Bob Misco has
helped more than 80 assisted living
facilities try to get up to code with
the new state standards but he says each
county has its own set of rules and
regulations and that has slowed down the
process for some facilities to get
approved and so has the sheer cost of
the equipment you just don't have the
money so what if a hurricane does hit
Central Florida some places are
implementing alternative ways to keep
residents safe in case of a power outage
by using things like this air cooler and
what it does it drives the thermostat
down save some money and it still it
works out so while Golden Cove waits for
a propane tank and transfer switch to be
installed residents like Bob here feel
they are safe and confident they'll be
able to weather the next big storm yes I
do
his caretaker just hopes they will have
a permanent solution soon I believe that
it has to be done for the safety of the
residents
that live in the facilities but
hopefully they can all do it because it
is the law now now I checked with akka
the state agency which monitors nursing
homes and assisted living facilities and
their compliance with these new rules
and their website shows Osceola County
Orange County and Brevard County all
have a failing grade I have that on our
website and the reason they have that
failing grade it's because less than
half of their facilities have an
approved power plan in place and
facilities that have filed an extension
have until January 1st to get it all
done or they can be fined or shut down
you know I didn't realize that it was
such a complicated process until you
broke all of that day so it's not as
simple as just like hey we're complying
now well and remember we had hurricane
Harvey we had hurricane Irma and then of
course we had hurricane Maria there was
a run on all of that equipment and
that's what a lot of these nursing homes
and a lot of these facilities are
dealing with is that run on equipment
and then the counties they were waiting
to get the clarification on the state
rules and then once the clarifications
on the state rules happen that's when
they actually put in their own County
guidelines but there's permitting that
has to be done and as you saw yeah
sometimes it's a month sometimes it's
more it's it's there's a lot that goes
into it but the the key factor is you
have to keep the residents safe and that
is what this is all about and so finding
alternatives finding ways to do it
but as we discovered some of these
smaller facilities the three four five
bedrooms six bedroom ones some of this
equipment is so expensive and some of
the the parameters are just so great
that these smaller places have just shut
down there's got to be something to
streamline this process whether it's
lawmakers getting involved to make
things more available more readily
available and then maybe finance it well
this was the year of transition and I
think now that this year of transition
will be finalized I think it will be
smooth sailing from here because they'll
have everything in place they'll have
transfer switches before they have to
have like 96 hours of fuel in case of a
state of emergency that's a lot of
gasoline that's a fire hazard so that's
something that they discovered so a lot
of these people had to transition to two
propane tanks and things like that
that's where all of that dangerous
waiting game is taking place all right
thank you