Nursing home works to keep residents safe from natural disasters
CROCKETT, Tenn. — A local nursing home in Crockett County hit by a tornado quite a few years ago is actively ensuring the safety of its residents.
The flag pole that was a part of the extensive damage due to a tornado hitting Bells Nursing Home remains bent to remember what happened that night in November of 2002. Fortunately, there were no severe injuries.
The Administrator of the nursing home, David McBride, tells us more about what happened.
“Unfortunately the tornado came right through here and it tore up parts of the nursing home. It tore it up pretty good. All of our residents had to be, of course, displaced. They were moved to other areas and other facilities for their care,” said McBride.
McBride went on to say how incredible the response was from the people in the area.
“If it wasn’t for the people of Crockett County and the surrounding areas, it would have been much worse than what it actually was. But we had a lot of help through the emergency management team here in Crockett County and also the agencies around,” said McBride.
On Thursday morning the emergency management team and their director, Steven Sutton, came to review their emergency plans. McBride tells us what they did following this review.
“He’s going to help us perform a drill that will involve all of our staff. So everyone’s going to be in the disaster mode today and see how they perform,” said McBride.
McBride tells us why this is such a critical exercise for them and their residents.
“Well the importance is that we do house a number of residents here in our facility and their safety depends on us. We have to be prepared. So it’s an ongoing training process from the time that we hire an employee throughout their employment here. Its a review that we do,” said McBride.
McBride said they aim to prepare for any disaster that could happen at any time.
McBride also said they are incredibly grateful for their emergency management team.
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