Did you see the elderly people in Texas in the nursing home?

Yes I did, the flooding is just tragic.

If this is referring to the photo of La Vita Belle AL in Dickinson, it is NOT licensed as NH / skilled nursing facility. NH have to have an emergency plan.  I'm not trying to sound callous about this as it's a tragic heart wrenching image the owner sent out to get help but it's not a NH. 

La vita is a AL. & AL do not have the requirements that a NH ever would for having an emergency evacuation plan in place. If it's AL, residents are expected to be basically be able to do their ADLs and if not only with minimal assistance.

Another reason why it's so important that you get your elder into a facility that meets their needs & review their care plan often. And ask what the emergency plan is. 

We went through Katrina 2005 with mil in a NH in NOLA & lots of friends with their folks in AL & NH here and on MS coast. The regs are pretty specific. But it was pretty tragic even with planning if the emergency overwhelms the system. My mils NH did a hurricane status document before season in which you had to sign what family would do. We signed that we would NOT get her. Year before was H. Ivan and folks were stuck hours & hours trying to just get from Nola to Baton Rouge & learned taking them out of the NH to drive wherever really bad bad terribly bad idea. Like gran with dementia opened door & let pets out and then walked out on I10 as cars not moving..... So when Katrina was coming, folks knew somewhat better. Tragedy still happened but more due to collapse of whole system. This is sadly probably going to be the story for Houston.

It sounds harsh but if they are in AL, they are expected to do on their own. If in NH, NH is expected & required to have a plan.

And if folks are looking to help or donate, Second Harvest Food Bank in NOLA & Lafayette are sending supplies to TX coast both trucked over and loaded onto boats the Cajun Navy has organized. Roads still pretty iffy & impassable. Second has huge dry & refrigerated warehouses & are shrink wrapping pallets right now.

I saw the photo. Made me think of my mom's assisted living home in Delaware. Also made me think how cold they must be sitting in waist high water.

At 12:25 Dickinson issued a mandatory evacuation due to "fragile infrastructure & limited utilities". Which means no potable water, no sewers working, gas turned off..... plus days more of rain.
The ladies at La Belle were in a way ahead of the curve in getting out over weekend.

We're just started by to see the destruction of H. Harvey. Tomorrow is 12th anniversary of H. Katrina & as one who went through it & rebuilding afterwards, & lived in Houston before that, what Harvey is doing will be more more complicated & beyond any billions imagined.

...

That is the most heartbreaking image I have ever seen. I hope they have all been rescued and are safe now.

I did see the photo and literally had to take a breath thinking of the agony those women must have endured, not to mention what physical issues might result.

Another photo (actually a video) that was gut wrenching was of an elderly man in a wheelchair being rolled along, I believe (if I remember correctly) through a flooded area.

I was not aware that this was an AL facility. Igloo, you've raised a very important issue. I've had discussions with an AL facility in the event that Dad decides it's too much to remain at home, and I never thought about evacuation during a weather event. I did have power outage on my list, as that happened earlier this year. I've just added evacuation and catastrophic weather event to my checklist.

I've read also that one hospital in the flooded area had to evacuate; I can't imagine the challenge of doing that, as well as the confusion the patients might endure. The resources to accomplish that must have been tremendous.

There's an interesting article on why Houston is so vulnerable to floods. It's insightful, and somewhat shocking how much these floods are more devastating due to human intervention, and sometimes just irresponsible land use and development.

GArden - Ben Taub. Trying to evacuate over weekend & still today. I don't think everybody's out as streets are various degrees of totally impassable and they probably need ambulance transport. Central controls in basement had water coming in & engineering determined it couldn't hold. PLUS dietary runs out of the basement too. So food service running out. It's one of the first hospitals at TMC. Like built in the 60's. I think it's like what Big Charity was for NOLA; so takes all regardless of pay. There is standing water everywhere at TMC with more rain still. They are going to have to start air drops like very soon as it's that or getting supplies by boat. Hospitals did plan; NICU shipped babies out to Dallas & SA, my cousin is nicu RN in SA & was in on coordination this weekend with this. Those on vents got shipped out too. But it's just unprecedented.

Some new hospital builds do submarine doors for central control as it's always put in basement. Jeannie Sealy in Galveston (UTMB) just got rebuilt & has them, very expensive so most hospitals won't. If your elder will be on a vent, you should ask what power systems exist.

La Belle is a small AL too, 14 beds. Their Facebook shows lots of love. Families liked this place as lots of posts with photos. Ladies with pets. My guess it is the rare AL that allows residents to bring a pet.

The next big issue for hospitals will be staff. Those there can't get out nor can their replacement get in to work. I hope things don't become the horror show that devolved at Memorial Baptist & to a lesser degree at Tulane medical during Katrina.

We have our own flooding issues as well now; we're under flood watches until early tomorrow morning, with more heavy storms coming in overnight.

Freeways were flooded in the low lying areas beneath the overpasses. I guess the police blocked traffic for about 5 hours. One of the freeways looked like a lake, except for the massive concrete supports.

Still, it's nothing like what Houston is getting. And I don't think it'll affect homes as much as the low lying areas of the freeway.

Fingers crossed my basement is dry tomorrow; I refuse to go down and look at it tonight as I'm too tired to be bailing water if it's flooded. Yuck.

Imagine the economic impact of those who no longer have a home to return to, and those who did get some water into their home that is repairable but costly.

It's my understanding that homeowner's insurance won't pay for damage unless you have a separate flood insurance policy. And if you aren't in a flood plain, you can't get that insurance, so if a 500 year flood pops up, sorry about that. Oh, I hope I have misinformation regarding that. Does anyone know?

And now the scammers are out. Heard about a group pretending to be the American Red Cross asking for donations :P