Florida governor issues emergency rules for nursing homes after hurricane deaths

The county has estimated that 20 percent or more of the homes in the island chain were badly damaged or destroyed by Irma’s Category 4 winds.

The news Monday comes after the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation reported that as of September 17, more than 335,000 claims had already been filed by homeowners for a total of about $2 billion, according to The Real Deal Miami.

On Saturday, Scott directed the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to issue emergency rules requiring all of the state’s assisted living facilities to have generators, a key source of power when electricity goes out.

“With that said, we had over 600 nursing homes that took care of their residents in a safe and productive manner before, during and after Irma“.

Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi said: ‘We know there will be many challenges ahead, especially for our hardest hit areas in the Lower Keys.

As millions of people paid heed to the warnings from state and federal officials, South Florida residents took to the highway searching for safety. “Thank you all!”, he said on Facebook. Nearly every home in the Florida Keys is damaged, according to FEMA. “You want to come back to a sewer system that works”.

The tail end of the archipelago, from Key West eastward to Big Coppitt Key, appears to have fared better than the Middle Keys.

Key West Photographer Rob O’Neal, who chose to stay during the hurricane, said: ‘We’re in a major pickle here in Key West.

Classrooms returned to normal after many schools were used as shelters during Hurricane Irma.

On Friday, Florida AHCA said it, along with the Florida Department of Health, was continuing to call assisted living communities, nursing homes and hospitals every day, conducting in-person wellness checks when they can not reach a facility or for any facility reporting distress.

There were signs of life Sunday night on Duval Street in Key West, where business owners and locals who sling the cocktails were gathered.

The Monroe County Twitter account posted it had recorded eight deaths Wednesday – although the Miami Herald reported nine. They include 27 in Florida, four in SC and three in Georgia.

The official death toll is being compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Division of Emergency Management and comes from county medical examiners.

One death has been tied to heat exhaustion, although the death in Broward County also was tied to “chronic alcoholism”.