St. Anna’s Residence is committed to the safety of our residents. In that regard, we have hurricane preparedness procedures in place, should it become necessary to evacuate the nursing home in the future. It is the joint decision of the President of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director and the Director of Nursing as to whether St. Anna’s will weather an approaching storm in place, or evacuate prior to its arrival. Although St. Anna’s will comply with all lawful regulatory requirements, each storm threat is evaluated individually.

In July of 2008, St. Anna’s participated in a mock evacuation drill in which St. Anna’s hired a bus and boarded ten residents representing a cross section of our population, who were attended by nursing and activities staff. This valuable exercise was observed by the Medical, Nursing & Executive Directors, as well as by members of our Board. Participants enjoyed a guided tour of New Orleans and St. Anna’s staff members were able to practice the skills required for a successful evacuation. This important exercise led to an exemplary evacuation for Hurricane Gustav several weeks later.

St. Anna’s is equipped with back-up generator power, food, water, and medication to sustain three days time in the event that a decision would be made to shelter in place for a lesser storm threat. Residents are encouraged to evacuate privately with their families; however, those who cannot join their families would be evacuated by air conditioned bus to Haven Nursing Center 7726 Highway 165 Columbia, Louisiana 71418 (318-649-9800).

This evacuation destination was selected to minimize the possibility of having to evacuate a second time in the event of a subsequent storm with a different trajectory. There is sufficient room to accommodate our resident population, which serves to minimize confusion and anxiety. It also is far enough away from our metropolitan area to escape widespread power outages, yet reachable, even in heavy evacuation traffic, within a reasonable number of highway hours.

Each resident family is required to submit to St. Anna’s Residence an out-of-state phone number to be utilized in just such an emergency, if the 504 area code is rendered unusable immediately following a hurricane. This contact number can be a relative or a friend of the family with whom pertinent evacuation status information can be relayed about your resident until cell phone signals are restored. It also would be most helpful for St. Anna’s to have email contact information, if applicable.