"I feel like they failed."
Those are the impressions of Broward County Mayor Barbara Sharief when it comes to the tragedy at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills where eight died once Hurricane Irma passed. Sharief, a long time highly trained professional nurse, weighed in on the circumstances at the nursing home and the overall impact of Irma on Broward County.
During an interview with NBC 6 Monday, Sharief said that the while Broward County has no authority to regulate or oversee nursing homes, after the tragedy, the county still deployed teams to 282 assisted living facilities, and 36 nursing homes, just to make sure residents are doing fine.
When it comes to the Hollywood facility that is located directly across from Memorial Regional Hospital, the mayor told NBC 6 the nursing needed to do more.
"Think that they needed to step up and take responsibility and protect those patients and in some instances I feel like they failed,” said Mayor Sharief. "For basic nursing, if you see person in distress and you know you can't handle that emergency, you should call 911. At that time 911 was active; there was a hospital across the street. So, there was just a number of things that were going on there that I think they needed to step up and take responsibility."
The mayor believes that, overall, the Broward County evacuation and shelter plan worked very well. She says she didn't think so many residents would leave their homes. She added that many waited until the last minute before doing so.
"Hurricane Matthew taught us quite a bit and I think our response was quite on point," Sharief said.
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What does she want to improve for the next storm?
"I think the biggest lesson we learned is that it’s never too early to evaluate people with special needs, " Sharief said.
The Mayor pointed out that financial help is on the way from the federal government to pay for a lot of the clean-up. She was on the phone Monday with Congresswoman Frederica Wilson.
There are 12,000 residents right now with nowhere to live and Sharief said FEMA will aid them in getting back on their feet. When it comes to getting the lights back on, the Mayor says FPL is working as quickly as possible. Her home is in the dark, too, and her kids aren't too happy.
"Right now there are 13,000 people and I am one of them. I haven’t had power since last Saturday at 1:30 p.m.”
The Mayor says despite the inconvenience, all of South Florida should feel fortunate it didn't receive the direct punch from Irma's wrath.
