When a tornado tore through the assisted living wing of a senior living community in Jackson, Tennessee, staff members were prepared for the worst. Careful planning, contingency planning, and more planning went a long way toward making the best of a bad situation. Would your staff be ready?
Outside, the noise mounted and a clutter of objects was heard striking the outside of the building, says Rebecca Kellick, executive director of Jackson Oaks Senior Living in Jackson, Tennessee. Then she heard an “incredible boom.”
“I knew at that point that we had been hit by the tornado,” Kellick says. “The alarm inside the building was going off, the power went out, and the emergency lights came on. From then on, it was a matter of doing the best we could do.”
The impact lasted only about a minute, but in that time, the tornado tore off the roof of the community’s assisted living wing, causing a pipe in the sprinkler system to rupture and water to rapidly advance up the hallway. Staff immediately moved residents toward the center of the building and its main entrance where, within five minutes, emergency response teams arrived.
Throughout the rest of the country on February 5, most people were watching “Super Tuesday” primary election returns on the evening news. Meanwhile, a line of tornados and severe thunderstorms pounded parts of the Southeast. But thanks to a carefully laid disaster plan, no lives were lost and no one was injured at Jackson Oaks, operated by Chicago-based Brookdale Senior Living.
Staff members and their families, residents’ family members, and neighbors of the community who heard the tornado tear through or saw its path on the news arrived at Jackson Oaks soon after the storm hit, and within two hours all of the 35 assisted living and 82 independent living residents boarded school buses and traveled to a Red Cross evacuation unit at the local civic center. Despite the relentless downpour of rain, Kellick says everyone from emergency responders to staff to residents calmly helped one another, and she never heard a complaint.
“The residents were amazing,” she adds. “They were calm and cooperative throughout the evacuation process and very supportive of other residents. They helped guide people with walkers and wheelchairs to the door. Everybody sprung into action to help.”
Kellick taped a note to the community’s door before they drove off so that any family members who showed up later would know where to find loved ones. Then she and other staff members stayed with residents through the night to ensure everyone was settled into their temporary quarters— which included a second move to a local high school—and to provide familiar faces amid the upheaval. As the night went on, more employees showed up to help, as well as more family members, some of whom would take their loved ones home with them.
Ahead of the Storm
Beyond its smooth spots and happy endings, the Jackson Oaks story actually began several hours before the tornado hit. With severe thunderstorms predicted for the evening, Kellick began implementing the community’s emergency preparedness plan first thing that morning. This included placing blankets in the hallways and checking flashlight batteries. Thanks to yearly in-services and monthly emergency drills, Kellick says she felt confident that the community was ready for whatever the weather threw their way. That morning, she also exchanged calls with Glenn Kiger, Brookdale Senior Living’s regional vice president of operations, who was monitoring the oncoming weather system from his Nashville office.
But after the tornado hit, Kellick couldn’t reach Kiger. All phone service— land-line and cell—was disabled. Fortunately, Kellick’s cell phone worked long enough to tell her husband, who had landline service, to call Brookdale’s community in Huntsville, Alabama, asking staff there to contact Kiger on her behalf. Kiger got the call at about 8:15 that evening and then contacted a national disaster recovery firm with which Brookdale has a contract. That company would have people onsite by midnight to assess the damage and start clean-up efforts. Kiger also contacted other Brookdale executives to alert them of the situation and organize their assistance. Kiger’s first impulse was to get in the car and drive the two hours west that night, but after consulting weather reports, he found he’d be riding straight into the storm’s path. He managed to reach Kellick on her cell about 90 minutes later.
“I told him there was no reason to make the trip that night,” Kellick says. “It was just a relief to know the company support was there.”
7 Tips for Surviving the Storm
On March 1, 2007, one of the most powerful tornados in Georgia’s history decimated Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus. Charles N. Hayslett, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based public relations firm The Hayslett Group, was called in to help manage the overwhelming communications challenges that followed the loss of the area’s only major hospital. Hayslett shares these best practices that can be applied to any weather-related crisis. |
Kiger finally hit the road at 6:30 the next morning. Driving into town just before 9 a.m., he recalls not seeing any storm damage until he was about three blocks away from Jackson Oaks. Then the picture changed dramatically.
“The closer you got to Jackson Oaks, the more it started looking like a war zone—trees down, houses smashed apart, brick walls knocked over,” Kiger recalls. “It was just like the pictures you see on TV after a tornado hits.”
Kiger toured the damage with Kellick and connected with representatives from the disaster recovery company as well as Jackson Construction, a local contractor that had worked with Brookdale Senior Living before and just showed up at the community to offer its help. Looking back, Kiger says, good business relationships come in handy in times of trouble.
Soon it became clear that while the independent living section could reopen in about a week, the assisted living wing would need to be completely rebuilt—a process Kiger estimates at about six months.
“The assisted living wing of the building looked like a bomb had gone off,” Kiger explains. “Walls were caved in, the ceiling was caved in, and the front wall was jutting out toward the street. The fence in front of the building was completely obliterated, but the flagpole was standing.”
In the daylight, the vast extent of the water damage from the sprinklers became apparent, and Kiger counted 60 window frames that had suffered wind damage. The gas and power lines had been turned off for safety purposes and would have to be checked and brought back online. Mechanical and life safety systems would also need assessing before becoming operational again. In all, determining the full extent of the damage took several days.
“In just three days, we hauled away 38 truckloads of debris and there still was plenty left,” Kiger adds.
Many of the community’s independent living residents left their temporary quarters to go home with relatives, while the company rented rooms at a local hotel for the rest and deployed staff there. The 35 assisted living residents would need more permanent arrangements, and within 48 hours, they all moved into area assisted living communities operated by other providers or relocated to Southerland Place, a Brookdale Senior Living community one hour away in Germantown, a Memphis suburb.
Organized Recovery
For the next several days, Kiger, Kellick, and key staff members gathered for 9 a.m. meetings to determine and assign tasks for the day. With help from the local department of emergency response, they also organized a community meeting to inform residents and family members about their recovery plans and schedule for moving residents back into Jackson Oaks. About 200 people attended the meeting, where the community collected e-mail addresses so they could send everyone daily updates on the progress.
Keeping in constant communication with families after a disaster is critical, Kiger says, because “you may have the best plans, but if families and residents don’t know about them, then they will assume you’re not doing anything.”
Having an up-to-date list of current residents and their responsible parties on paper to grab and take with her was an essential tool, Kellick adds. She recommends printing that list at least weekly to ensure it’s up to date with new move-ins and move-outs and even who’s away in the hospital that day.
“The first thing the emergency response team wants to know is how many residents you have and whether all are accounted for,” she notes.
Jackson Oaks also asked local broadcast media to publicize updates. Because onsite staff members were involved with disaster recovery and communicating with families and residents, Brookdale Senior Living’s corporate public relations department handled media requests.
“I thought the local media did a good, responsible job,” Kiger says. “We did a lot of things right in this, and we got lucky, too. The media coverage might have been different if someone was injured or died.”
Local Support
Just two miles away, Morningside of Jackson, an assisted living and Alzheimer’s care community operated by Newton, Massachusetts-based Five Star Quality Care, also was preparing for the storm. Throughout the day, Executive Director Glenda Temple and the management team held staff meetings to review disaster and evacuation plans. Like Jackson Oaks, they meticulously executed the first steps of their plans, checking flashlight batteries and confirming in-house food supplies were adequate.
At about 6 p.m., Temple left the community, knowing staff members were prepared.
About half an hour later, the tornado warning was issued. Staff members, under the supervision of the second-shift nurse, moved residents into a central safe area away from windows. They rolled in dining room chairs so everyone could sit comfortably, conducted a resident and staff roll call, and played music to help maintain a calm atmosphere. Staff members also organized games for the residents to help pass the time.
In addition to watching the weather on TV, staff members monitored two-way weather radios that pick up weather broadcasts from up to 100 miles away, allowing them to track the storm’s movement. Fortunately, Morningside of Jackson was not in the tornado’s path. By 10 p.m., when all the watches and warnings were over, staff members helped residents return to their rooms.
Temple knew the community had been spared, but with phone service down throughout the area, she returned later that night to ensure everything had gone smoothly. With the phone lines back up, the community’s marketing director had begun receiving calls from residents’ family members. By 7 a.m. the next morning, Temple and her staff were busy preparing admissions paperwork and reaching out to Jackson Oaks to offer assistance. Next, staff members developed an action plan for accommodating the new residents. Staff divided up tasks from communicating with family members to shopping for linens, clothing, and toiletry items for the displaced seniors.
Morningside of Jackson welcomed five Jackson Oaks residents, and a touching moment occurred after they arrived. After the stress of losing their home and then traveling to different temporary locations, the new residents had a great need to just talk about what had happened. The Morningside residents’ hospitality committee organized an effort to not just greet the seniors but formed groups to sit together and listen.
The Aftermath
On the following Sunday, independent living residents and staff moved back into Jackson Oaks. Brookdale Senior Living made the decision early on to keep all of its assisted living staff on payroll, rather than letting them go while the assisted living wing was rebuilt, Kiger says.
“We put them to work filling in with other departments, and we’re looking for creative ways to utilize them during this period,” he adds. “It was the right thing to do. A lot of our staff had years of tenure, and you can’t go out and find people with 15 years of experience.”
One key task for nursing assistants will be visiting the assisted living residents who are in other communities at least monthly.
“We want all the residents to come back, but I understand that may not be possible for all of them,” Kellick says. “They will develop new relationships and their families will not want to uproot them. Of course, they didn’t want to leave. That was very obvious when we had the meeting with the families. There were a lot of tears, but they knew it couldn’t be helped.”
Kellick says she continues to receive positive feedback from staff members, residents, and family members about how well the community handled the crisis.
“There’s always room for improvement, and I’m sure we made some mistakes, but the most important thing was that nobody was hurt,” Kellick says. “Things can be replaced, but all of us came away that night without a scratch.”
— Anya Martin is a contributing writer to Assisted Living Executive.
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Content originally published in the June 2008 issue of Assisted Living Executive.
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