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Cowichan’s private seniors care facilities used generators to get through outage

Like so many places, the power went out at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 20 at Acacia Ty Mawr, a 35-bed seniors’ care residence in Shawnigan Lake.
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Nobody in the Cowichan Valley was immune to the damage the Dec. 20 windstorm caused but some care homes were able to step up for their residents. (Citizen file)

Like so many places, the power went out at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 20 at Acacia Ty Mawr, a 35-bed seniors’ care residence in Shawnigan Lake.

Staff there sprung into action, trying their best to ensure their residents were safe and warm. By Friday evening however, some families were being called to see if they could take their loved ones home.

“We were called to request that we take our father home in order to keep him warm,” confirmed Victoria’s Kari Patterson. “When we arrived, outside was 0 degrees, so I can’t imagine how cold it was inside. Residents were cold and confused, and staff were doing their absolute best to keep the them calm, reassured and warm.”

Patterson said beds were being shuffled around to the great room where they would be able to keep the residents warm.

“People were in blankets, coats, hats, and gloves,” Patterson said. “I hear that even off duty staff came in to help out, some putting in 48 hours of work to try to keep things going.”

The power was restored sometime on Saturday afternoon, after being out almost three days.

“I want to thank the staff very much for everything they did by looking after some of our most vulnerable and precious families,” Patterson said.

Director of care at Acacia Ty Mawr Andrea Henwood said it was a challenge.

Sunridge Place, a facility housing almost 160 residents in long term case plus another 50 in assisted living suites, fared better than most others.

“We had generator backup, so we didn’t have a lot of issues,” according to Jain Mariyil, director of care. “We had power back by midnight so it was fine.”

Over at Sherwood House, an independent living facility with support services for 67 residents, the power was out for less than two days.

Laura Griffin, Sherwood House’s manager said the facility’s emergency generator kicked in when the power went out.

“That allowed us to use elevators and it lit the common areas,” she said. “The building stayed warm and our food stayed cool because the walk in freezer and fridge are also on the emergency system as well.”

Most importantly, Griffin noted, the residents were safe.

“The residents have always been encouraged to have flashlights by their bedside,” she said. “And the other thing that continued to work during the power outage was our emergency response system, our lifeline, was still operating.”



sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com

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