AFTERMATH

Florida Nursing Home Employees Face Charges in Hurricane Irma Deaths

Three employees at the now-closed Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills turned themselves in on Monday.

Three former workers at a Florida nursing home where 12 died in extreme heat when power was cut after Hurricane Irma face charges after surrendering to authorities on Monday, the Associated Press reports. Lawyers Jim Cobb and Lawrence Hashish said their clients, two nurses and an administrator at the now-shuttered Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, are expected to be slapped with manslaughter charges. It was unclear if a third nurse, who was also supposed to be charged, had turned herself in. Investigators found the center did not evacuate patients after the power was cut despite climbing temperatures inside the facility. The center’s license was suspended just days after Irma hit and subsequently closed. 

Cobb said the nursing home was told to call then-Gov. Rick Scott’s personal cell phone if they needed help—but calls were never returned and those in the center were left “languishing” as they waited for help that never came. Scott, now a senator, told the AP the administrators “failed to do their basic duty to protect life” and should have called 911. Hollywood Police, which reportedly issued the arrest warrants, did not respond to requests for comment.