Barrington Terrace in Fort Myers is an assisted living and memory care residence. They’re in evacuation zone A. That means the staff is tasked with moving 78 residents across the state to another center in Pompano Beach.
The humid Tuesday morning that Hurricane Milton loomed, the residents were calmly lining up and boarding buses, helped by the staff.
The staff takes care to meet the needs of residents. Smaller buses are used for those who need more support. Sharon Scofic’s 91-year-old mother was on one of those. She and her grandkids jumped on the bus to kiss her mother goodbye just before she left for her trip. Even as the hurricane charged toward the Gulf coast, Sharon wasn’t worried about her mother.
“I’m happy,” Scofic said. “I’m feeling she’s a lucky duck.”
Martine MacNeil is regional vice president of sales and helped bring about the morning’s smooth operation. Between guiding residents to buses, she explains some of the logistics.
“We're planning all of the time, and we have a whole team in Pompano Beach ready to receive and have backup. We have people coming in from Miami and Delray Beach and Atlanta to make sure everyone's covered,” MacNeil said.
The staff also is careful to help residents get comfortable with what could be an anxious day.
“Definitely making it easy on them, so all of their favorite staff that we could get to be here,” MacNeil said. “We've planned everything, kind of get them dressed, but we've had them back in their neighborhood setting all morning until we were absolutely ready to get them on the buses.”
It’s not by accident that the process is running so smoothly ahead of the storm. Vice president of operations Paul Kelley came in from Atlanta to help.
“We start planning for this in April, ahead of hurricane season. So we get the teams ready. We get residents ready to go, so we're ready to evacuate if we need to,” Kelley said.
Sharon Scofic, for one, has confidence in the care her mother is getting.
“A well-oiled machine,” she said. “They know what they’re doing.”
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