The August 10th derecho storm came and now is gone at The Mayflower Community in Grinnell IA. It was terrible, with much destruction throughout the greater Poweshiek County area. Likely, if you have not burned up a bunch of energy in the last 10 days cleaning up after the storm, you have at least read and heard about all you wish to about it.
As of today, Alliant Energy reports that 95% of the greater Grinnell community has now had its power restored. That is not much consolation to certain Mayflower staff members who are still living in the dark as they await the arrival of the local electrician and then the linemen.
Now, it’s back to the coronavirus pandemic. Not much there has changed, as our senior living and healthcare community remains COVID-19 free (with the help of an extremely diligent staff). As a result, we have loosened the visitor and vendor restrictions somewhat in our Health Center and Beebe Assisted Living facilities. Meanwhile, we are seeking the post-pandemic new normal throughout the entire campus.
The wind, rain, and downed trees on top of mask-wearing people has resulted in some new learning experiences. The accompanying photos provide a glimpse of Mayflower during this difficult period.
Refrigerators and freezers had to be completely emptied, sanitized, and aired out. Ice and hot coffee became critical staples as the former chilled some foodstuffs and the later kept people sustained. The Mayflower kitchen provided both, all day long as well as three meals a day on the patio from Monday evening through the Tuesday evening of the following week.
Just as important was the gas-generator charging station that kept electronic devices powered from day to day. It became a social gathering place (face masks and social distancing) as an improvement over blank TV screens and shadowy dark homes. Some frozen goods were transferred to the Mayflower kitchen walk-in to be returned were power came back.
Here are some vignettes from the “dark period:”
- One resident started eating bran flakes with WATER for breakfast. Surprisingly, he said, “It tastes pretty good!”
- In the freezer goods sent to Mayflower’s freezer were a couple of top quality cuts of meat that a wife had purchased to surprise her husband on a special occasion. He discovered them when restocking the freezer and asked her to do some explaining!
- One fairly new resident had eaten few meals in the Mayflower dining room, but was so taken with the emergency meals served on our patio that she has vowed to start eating regularly from our diverse menu.
- Many independent living residents received offers from offspring to “come spend time with us” during the power outage. Most declined because all their needs were being met in their familiar surroundings.
- The Health Center was powered about 80% throughout the outage by the huge diesel generator located in the lower level. Our nursing staff tell us that residents were quite resilient, but did complain that staff was neglecting to turn on lights (ones not powered) and that they wanted to watch TV (cable provider was down).
We have made some extraordinary notes for the next natural disaster!
— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director