‘Can’t happen again’: Tallahassee senior apartments without power for 4 days after tornadoes

Three days after tornadoes struck Tallahassee, state Rep. Allison Tant was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the dark.

Minutes earlier, the local state lawmaker – a formidable 5'1" – carried large boxes of granola bars and chips into the first floor of Brookestone Senior Residences, which has more than 100 units of affordable housing for seniors.

It's been without power since Friday's storms, meaning no lights, no elevators for those who can't take stairs and no electricity for at-home dialysis.

Tant even went to Walmart and bought 170 flashlights on her own tab.

"I was out here at 7:45 a.m. this morning, waiting for hot food that we're hoping will still get here," she said as she was spreading crunchy Jif on pieces of whole wheat bread. The situation was dire enough that Kevin Guthrie, the state's emergency management director, showed up.

"In the meanwhile, I'm doing sandwiches so I can help people eat something, have a little love on a plate to the best of my culinary abilities, which is pretty much this."

On Friday, two EF-2 and one EF-1 tornado tore through Tallahassee from west to east, snapping trees and popping power lines from around 6:30 a.m. to 7:15.

The city was caught off guard. Some were on their way to work when suddenly their ears began to pop and the limbs of oaks and pines started to drop to the ground in front of their cars. Some children were already in school. But by 7:30 in the morning, all of Tallahassee knew they had experienced something unprecedented.

Soon after, social media posts about the Brookestone senior housing complex, operated by Cambridge Management, Inc., started getting shared. Word spread that the residents needed help. A request seeking comment from the company is pending.

On Sunday, someone posted there were residents walking along Apalachee Parkway, near where the building is located, asking for food. Management hadn't been at the complex since Thursday, residents said, and wheelchair-bound and disabled tenants were stuck on the second and third floors.

"I noticed that the chatter got worse, not better, so I continued to make calls," Tant said.

She called local officials. She called the Red Cross. She called the governor's office.

By Sunday night, the Florida Department of Emergency Management brought portable restrooms, laundry service and generators. Less than 12 hours later, there were at least four state agencies at the complex.

In Florida, assisted living facilities and nursing homes are required to have a backup power source for four days. The law, signed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2018, was enacted after people died at a Hollywood facility in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

But Brookestone isn't an assisted living facility or nursing home. It's an apartment complex for seniors, a category that is not required to have backup electricity measures. There are two other communities like Brookestone in Tallahassee.

And there's a gap for hybrid communities like these, Tant said: "There's going to be some protocols developed for this."

'They kind of forgot about us'

David Hand, 76, said he notified the City of Tallahassee utilities on Friday that the apartment complex should be a priority for power restoration because of the high number of residents who rely on electricity for their health.

Hand said he was told each resident would have to fill out a form requesting emergency assistance as they couldn't make the whole building a priority.

He said residents called the local Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state's Department of Elder Affairs as well.

"We're kind of isolated back here, and it's like I think they kind of forgot about us because we're off the main drag," Hand said, explaining that the building is set far back from the Parkway. "We didn't have any kind of early response at all from anyone. So we've been out in the dark now for four days."

When asked for comment, city spokesperson Alison Faris told the Democrat in a text message to reach out to the city's emergency operations center. On Sunday morning, Leon County's Emergency Management Director Kevin Peters emailed Guthrie and state officials requesting that they look into the situation unfolding at Brookstone and assess if they should be required to hold an assisted living facility license.

Over the weekend, Brookestone residents formed a committee that went door to door and checked on their most-vulnerable neighbors. One man on the third floor opened his door and was shaking in fear, said resident Melody Perkins.

"I just felt for the ones who couldn't get downstairs and on oxygen, that's really what broke my heart," she said.

Monique Ellsworth, CEO of Second Harvest of the Big Bend, said she was notified Sunday by the Red Cross that residents at Brookestone needed help. On Monday, Ellsworth and her team were delivering meals, door to door. It was "pitch black," she said.

"As we pass, we're seeing doors open and people sliding food into their home, and something about how dehumanizing this experience must be for people in this building breaks my heart for members of our community to feel so left behind," she said.

"I'm just grateful for everyone who's now here. Once we learn about it, our community rallies," she added.

Monday morning, Guthrie walked around and spoke with residents and agency staff. Wearing a windbreaker with "FDEM" in bright yellow on the back, Guthrie spoke to the apartment complex manager and others in the rain while the county was under a tornado watch. Questions sent to DEM about the state's response were not immediately answered.

After days of suffering, good news arrived around 2 p.m., before severe storms hit the capital again: A utility crew from Jacksonville restored power. They said a tree had fallen on a power line, forcing the poles to snap in half. It took about six hours to replace the two poles.

In the meantime, "those elders sat there without power, no food, from Friday until today," Tant said.

"This cannot happen again."

Ana Goñi-Lessan can be reached at agonilessan@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee senior apartments without power for days after tornadoes