COURTESY OF ELENA CABATU
Hale Hoola Hamakua Administrator Romel Dela Cruz stood yesterday in the facility's dining room, where 30 residents slept dormitory style, some for more than two months, following the Oct. 15 earthquakes.
|
|
Repairs end care home camp-out
The October quakes had damaged the Big Island facility's rooms
HONOKAA, Hawaii » As many as 30 elderly residents slept dormitory style in a dining room for weeks after the October earthquakes made their semiprivate rooms unsafe at a care facility north of Hilo.
A few dividers were placed between beds at the state-run Hale Hoola Hamakua long-term care facility, but mostly there was one big room with no privacy, said Administrator Romel Dela Cruz. Ten more residents slept in the rehabilitation room.
"The women absolutely loved it," spokeswoman Elena Cabatu said. They saw it as an chance to socialize.
"The men wanted to keep to themselves," she said.
This week, the long indoor camp-out ended with the last 13 residents returning to repaired rooms in the Plumeria Wing. The majority of the residents returned to the facility's other wing, the Lehua, on Nov. 22.
Built in 1995, the 50-bed Hale Hoola suffered some exterior damage Oct. 15, but the worst problem was inside. The sprinkler system flooded rooms and left wallboard rotting.
For the first five days after the quakes, residents averaging 75 to 85 years of age were sent to the adjoining, old, wooden Honokaa Hospital, which had been converted to an education center, Cabatu said.
Then beds were set up in the dining and rehab rooms of Hale Hoola for nighttime use, while two 20-by-40-foot tents were used for daytime living, Dela Cruz said.
Many of the residents have dementia, and some have Alzheimer's, Dela Cruz said. Nights could be a real problem because of "sundowners," patients who rarely slept, staying awake all night shouting.
Normally the noise can be muted by closing doors, but in the dining room there were no doors between beds. The nursing staff, 55 out of a total work force of 90, were run ragged trying to keep things under control while worrying that earthquake aftershocks might hit, Dela Cruz said.
By Tuesday, $500,000 in interior repairs were completed, and all residents were returned to their rooms. Nine residents were discharged immediately after the quakes, and five are expected to return this week, Dela Cruz said.
With the interior repaired, engineers turned their attention this week to assessing exterior damage, he said. There is no dollar estimate yet.