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Four Louisiana nursing home residents who were evacuated ahead of Hurricane Ida have died at facility where state inspectors were prevented from conducting a full assessment this week, state officials said on Thursday. Three of the fatalities have been classified as storm-related by the coroner, though definitive causes of death have not yet been confirmed, according to the Louisiana Department of Health. The deaths occurred at a facility in Tangipahoa Parish, north of New Orleans. Inspectors “promptly visited the site but were expelled from the property,” state officials said in a written statement. “We have significant concerns about conditions in this facility.” More than 800 residents from seven different nursing homes had been moved to the Tangipahoa Parish facility, and state officials said they are working to find safe placements for them, beginning with the most vulnerable. As of Thursday morning,721 had been moved. A dozen of those required hospitalization. “We will be taking action against these nursing facilities, and will be making appropriate referrals to law enforcement,” the State Department of Health said. The news came as officials in New Orleans announced on Thursday that they were organizing a voluntary evacuation option for residents hoping to get out of the city, which remains largely without electricity. Details of that plan are still in the works, but it would allow residents to be taken to a state-run shelter outside the city, said Collin Arnold, the New Orleans director of homeland security. The city would give priority to elderly and disabled residents and then make the option available to the general public, he said.
