'I'm totally shocked': Assisted living resident shares reaction to aftermath(360p)
At least 135 people have been rescued from the Great American Assisted Living Facility in Tampa, where first responders found residents in water up to their waists, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. CNN’s Isabel Rosales reports. #CNN #News
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NewsTranscript
00:00Let me go out to CNN's Isabel Rosales.
00:02She is in Tampa for us where we're seeing more rescues.
00:06Isabel, what can you tell us?
00:09Gemma, yes, you're looking at a very, very active
00:13search and rescue operation.
00:15That is, sure, that vehicle you're looking at right there,
00:17able to go into the deep flood waters
00:19that they're experiencing right now
00:21at the University Mall area.
00:23This is a strange scene for this area.
00:27This sort of flooding just does not happen here.
00:30Behind that vehicle is actually a sign
00:33of the Great American Assistive Living Facility,
00:36and that is where deputies have just rescued 135 members.
00:40Let's move this camera to the right right here,
00:43and you're gonna see them right here.
00:45Many of them elderly, many of them need to use wheelchairs
00:49or walkers, and what they're doing right now
00:52is they've been rescued out of those flood waters
00:54by Hillsborough County deputies
00:55and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue,
00:58and what's going to happen is they're going to be loaded
01:00into a school bus like we saw just moments ago,
01:04the bus full to the brim with these people
01:08for the Assistive Living Facility,
01:10and they're going to take them away to a shelter
01:12or somewhere that they can get the appropriate attention,
01:14food, water, shelter, medical attention, most importantly.
01:18I spoke with somebody here named Gary
01:21who was inside of that Assistive Living Facility,
01:23and he told me the water came suddenly and up to his knees,
01:27that it was scary.
01:29The sheriff here, Chad Chronister,
01:31this was actually his district when he was a rookie,
01:35and he tells us that he has never seen anything like this
01:38in terms of flooding for the University Mall area,
01:41and this is not the end of it.
01:42They have set up a command post, Jim,
01:45because, yes, they got all of these people out,
01:47but there's other people stuck in homes
01:50and in an apartment complex, I'm told by HCSO,
01:53so they're going to be busy going door to door here
01:56and getting people who are trapped by these floodwaters out.
02:00Yeah, I mean, you can see it all on their faces,
02:03just looks of exhaustion and desperation.
02:07I can't imagine what they're going through.
02:08I don't want to put you on the spot as well,
02:10but if any of them want to talk to you,
02:11I mean, feel free to see how they're doing.
02:14I actually do, Jim. I do.
02:16I have Gary over here, and I just wasn't sure
02:18how that would work out with the camera
02:20since we're having some audio issues.
02:21Yeah, we'll give it a shot.
02:23Gary, can you speak right now? Is that okay?
02:27This is Gary. Gary, can you tell me again what happened?
02:31How did the water come suddenly?
02:34What happened was the water just came in.
02:35It just, they had the doors blocked,
02:38but it came in.
02:41There was nothing they could do about it.
02:44We have regular people, but we had other facilities.
02:48Some brains didn't come over here,
02:50and that's why there's so many people in here.
02:52Yeah, and the water came suddenly and unexpectedly?
02:55Slowly, real slowly.
02:57Kept going up, up, up, higher and higher and higher.
03:00At what point did you know that 911 had to be called?
03:04Oh, about midnight or so, something like that, yeah.
03:08From midnight that call was made,
03:11and then you guys have been waiting for conditions to be okay.
03:15We know that... I don't know who made the call.
03:17Who made the call, right.
03:18We know that 911 operations were suspended shortly after 11
03:23because of the high wind speeds,
03:25how unsafe conditions were for deputies to be out and about.
03:28So right before daylight is when they started these operations.
03:31How are people?
03:32How are people after this situation, Gary?
03:35Most of them are cold because they've been in water all night.
03:39Oh, my gosh. Waiting through the water?
03:41They're just sitting late.
03:42We had extra beds brought in for the other facility,
03:46and there's nothing we could do.
03:47The water kept going up.
03:49So people are just sitting in the water for overnight?
03:52Most of it, yeah.
03:54I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
03:55I heard just someone say all night.
03:57And I did see when somebody was loaded up into the school bus,
04:01somebody said, thank God for first responders.
04:03Thank you for this.
04:05What is the feeling, the sentiment that you guys had
04:08once you saw HCSO roll on in?
04:10Oh, personally, I wasn't surprised,
04:15but how many people we had here to help everybody,
04:20I'm totally shocked.
04:21I'm very appreciative.
04:24And, you know, I just, you know, because I'm able to walk.
04:31Yeah, and so many cannot. I see them in the water.
04:34Exactly. Yeah.
04:36And, Gary, thank you so much.
04:37And I see your hat, a Marine, a veteran.
04:39Thank you so much for your service, sir.
04:41And I hope that you get some food, you know, you get some warmth,
04:44and you guys get the medical attention you need.
04:47Thank you so much, sir.
04:48Can I take his jacket?
04:49Yeah, we'll get you a jacket, sir.
04:52Thank you. Tim, I'll talk this back to you.
04:54Yeah, Isabel, thank you so much.
04:56And I'm sure they're cold if they've been sitting in the water.
04:58Did I hear that correctly, Isabel,
05:00that these residents were in this facility
05:02and some of them were sitting in the water
05:04or standing in the water in the middle of the night?
05:07Correct. Correct.
05:08Oh, my God.
05:09Ma'am, would you be willing to talk to us?
05:11Would you be willing?
05:12He said that you guys were in the water for hours cold.
05:15Was that the case?
05:16Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
05:19I remember when it started to come through
05:22and it was only about that deep
05:24and it was coming from under the air conditioning unit.
05:28The water was coming from under the air conditioning unit?
05:31Yeah, I guess the outside was getting full
05:35and I think there's a retention pond or something behind us.
05:38Yeah, I know.
05:39Yeah, and it just filled up
05:41and started coming right in the building.
05:44The back door was all the way down the end of Hallway 1
05:49and we were the absolute last room.
05:55Scary, I'm sure.
05:56It was because you could literally hear that thing
06:01coming around the corner
06:02and it just sounded like it was going to take the building with it,
06:05you know, and when the winds came.
06:10Well, I'm so sorry for what you're going through.
06:11What's your name, ma'am?
06:12Patricia.
06:13Patricia, I'm so sorry, Patricia.
06:15I can see.
06:16Thank you guys.
06:17You guys came out.
06:19You really cared enough about us.
06:20Of course, and to the first responders
06:22getting you guys the help that you need.
06:24Thank you so much, Patricia.
06:25Please be safe.
06:26Jim, back to you.
06:28Isabel, give those folks a hug for us.
06:30And I hate to ask something that maybe you can't answer, Isabel,
06:33and forgive me for asking you,
06:35but were these folks supposed to evacuate?
06:37I mean, that's the thing that I just have a question about
06:40is whether they should have even been left in, you know,
06:42in this facility overnight with the water coming up.
06:45You know, forgive me for asking something you can't answer.
06:48That's OK. We can find out.
06:49No, no problem. No problem.
06:51So my understanding, Jim,
06:53this is not an area that would normally flood to this level.
06:56We know that there's been mandatory evacuation of like zones A and B
07:01throughout Hillsborough County and Tampa proper.
07:05This is not it.
07:06And, of course, once I get in touch with the sheriff here,
07:08Chad Chronister, I'll ask him more about it.
07:11But this seems to be a situation where everyone was listening
07:13to the advice of, you know, forecasters and authority figures.
07:17And then this just came unexpectedly,
07:19this incredible stunning amount of floodwaters.
07:23I want to introduce to you two ladies here who told me
07:26they'd be willing to talk us through what happened, what they experienced.
07:29This is Teresa.
07:31She's a resident.
07:32And this is Kayla, who actually works at that assisted living facility.
07:35Teresa, can you bring me back to what happened
07:39when the floodwaters rushed in?
07:40Well, I was in bed, obviously,
07:41and I didn't realize it was flooded at first.
07:44Then I heard a crash.
07:45And I had a, I mean, a refrigerator in there
07:49and a microwave on top of it.
07:51It just blew out.
07:52It's on the floor floating.
07:53I mean, it was coming up in my bed to the edge of my bed.
07:56I mean, it got on, it was terrible.
07:59That sounds terrifying.
08:00The water was so cold, you know.
08:03Man, it's just, and I'm missing a shoe, my brace shoe,
08:06and I don't know where it is in my room, floating around somewhere.
08:10Yeah, but...
08:12Yeah, I can see you're, you know, tearing up a bit,
08:14thinking about those moments.
08:15I'm so sorry you went through...
08:17Scary, scary.
08:19You know, and more people moved around in the tiki room,
08:22plus shit out the other side.
08:24And how long did you guys wait in those floodwaters?
08:28It was a pretty good while.
08:30We just got out maybe, like, what, a couple of hours ago?
08:35We were in, like, three, four feet of water.
08:39I got woken up about 2am to the building is starting to flood.
08:44So we had to, I had to get up, I had to react,
08:47I had to get dressed and basically make sure
08:51that all the residents were OK,
08:53including residents that were from Bradenton,
08:56because they got transported yesterday to our facility.
08:59Is there a reason why?
09:01Because they thought that, they were told to evacuate.
09:05So what, you actually had more residents evacuate to your facility
09:09because they thought that they'd be safe there?
09:11Yes, Manatee County told them to evacuate.
09:15And then that's when... To you.
09:17To us, yes.
09:18So Bradenton was mainly in the kind of, like, the middle
09:22and, like, some rooms, as much as we could really do.
09:26And I did confirm with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office,
09:28this is not an evacuation zone.
09:30So this is something that came sudden and unexpected.
09:33This is not the sort of flooding you would anticipate seeing here
09:36in the University Mall area.
09:39Can you talk real quickly, Kayla, about the medical complications
09:43of these residents?
09:44We had to... There was a guy from Bradenton.
09:47He was running low on oxygen.
09:48So we had to get him an oxygen tank
09:52because he had a portable oxygen.
09:55We got that taken care of.
09:56And we also had another oxygen tank on hand as well
10:01because that's also important for them to breathe and stay alive.
10:06And then we still had to pass out medications
10:09while we were in the building
10:10because their medication is important.
10:12Right. So a situation...
10:14You're not dealing with regular, you know, people
10:16just in any apartment complex, which, by the way,
10:18they're doing rescues right now at an apartment complex
10:20and nearby homes.
10:22These are people dealing with mobility issues,
10:23medication, oxygen.
10:25She's in a wheelchair, so she can't mobilize herself.
10:28She can stand up, but she can't...
10:31She can transfer and everything,
10:32but she can't physically get out of here and walk.
10:35So it's very difficult for her and some other residents as well.