After tornadoes left them in the dark for four days, the low-income seniors living in Tallahassee's Brookestone apartments were hoping for some good news on Saturday, May 26. They met with a state lawmaker, legislative staff, the head of the regional Area Agency on Aging and people from the complex's management company.
The power outage from the tornado stranded many residents on the upper floors, spoiled medicine that needed refrigeration and frustrated the more than 100 Brookestone residents. Representatives from Cambridge Management, which runs the complex, said they sympathized.
"And we will take this up with our upper management and ownership to see if there's anything we can do to improve the experience we create for you guys."
Florida law requires nursing homes and assisted living facilities to have full emergency backup power. But State Representative Allison Tant, who helped the residents during the outage, said full generator backup for every apartment in the kind of senior residence they occupy isn't likely to find its way into Florida law.
"Bring what makes sense for properties like this, without being overbearing for properties like this," she told them, although lawmakers might be agreeable to providing generator power to the complex's community room.
But the meeting also pointed out the need for the residents and management to put a better emergency response plan in place. That includes simply checking on and looking out for each other next time.
