To Evacuate or Not to Evacuate: Lessons Learned From Louisiana Nursing Home Administrators Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Respondents noted 4 general themes during the interviews and focus group session: (1) ADs felt abandoned by the state and federal emergency response apparatus during and after the hurricanes, and continue to feel that they are not a priority; (2) there is substantial physical and technical difficulty in evacuating frail NH residents; (3) staff retention remains a critical problem regardless of the evacuation decision; (4) there are key “lessons learned” that can be incorporated into future disaster planning.