As parts of Texas were flooded from torrential rains resulting from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey in August 2017, a photograph of nursing home residents apparently calmly sitting and clinging to their belongings amidst waist-deep water while waiting to be rescued went viral online:
Although many viewers questioned the legitimacy of this image, according to the Galveston County Daily News it was indeed snapped at La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, Texas (a city in Galveston County), from which fifteen senior citizens were evacuated by helicopter as the flood waters rose:
Fifteen senior citizens were evacuated from the La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, David Popoff, the city’s emergency management coordinator confirmed on Sunday afternoon.
Poppoff said the residents were rescued by helicopter.
“We were air-lifting grandmothers and grandfathers,” Popoff said.
The picture was shared on Twitter by Timothy McIntosh, whose said his mother-in-law owns the assisted-living home.
His wife, Kimberly McIntosh, said her mother sent the picture at 9 a.m. [Sunday] morning.
“She said it was a disaster and they were hoping the national guard would come,” Kimberly McInstosh said.
According to CNN, the nursing home's management had been instructed not to evacuate residents from the facility in advance of the storm, and they were unable to contact anyone who could help them get everyone to safety once the home began flooding:
"My mom sent it to me at 9 this morning. She said it was a disaster," McIntosh said Sunday. "They [were] waiting for helicopters or the National Guard."
"Most of these people are in wheelchairs and [on] oxygen," she said.
McIntosh said that when she spoke to her mother, [Trudy] Lampson told McIntosh that the residence was not told to evacuate. Instead, they were instructed to stay in place and have a disaster plan.
McIntosh [said] the water became waist-deep 10 to 15 minutes after it first started flowing through the doors.
But when the situation turned dire and Lampson began reaching out for a rescue, she was told that first-responders wouldn't be able to help, the daughter said.
"They were basically told no one was coming because they couldn't reach them," McIntosh said. "They might be put on a list, and that was it."
"That's when we decided to go ahead and tweet the photos, because we were afraid she wasn't going to get any help," McIntosh said.