Residents of a flooded Texas nursing home had to be rescued by helicopter from the waist-deep water in the building Sunday.
The 15 residents of La Vita Bella assisted living in Dickinson, Texas, were rescued hours after an alarming photograph of a group of elderly women sitting in the water was posted to Twitter.
Timothy McIntosh, the son-in-law of the woman who owns the nursing home posted the picture just before 10am on Sunday asking for help.
Fifteen residents of La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson, Texas, had to be evacuated by helicopter on Sunday because the facility was flooded with waist-deep water. They were rescued after this picture went viral
He tweeted: ‘La vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson Texas is almost underwater with nursing home patients.
‘Need help asap emergency services please RETWEET’.
The picture shows at least eight people and a cat sitting in the flooded nursing home.
Though some people on the social media site doubted if the picture was real, a woman in Dickinson posted a picture of her flooded street from the second floor of her home nearby.
She wrote: ‘This is taken from the second floor of a home that is less than a mile away. And Dickinson Bayou is between them. Very plausible.’
Though some people on the social media site doubted if the picture was real, a woman in Dickinson posted a picture of her flooded street from the second floor of her home nearby
Several hours after McIntosh tweeted the first picture, the residents of the nursing home were rescued by helicopter.
‘We were airlifting grandmothers and grandfathers,’ Dickinson emergency management coordinator David Popoff told Galveston County’s Daily News.
McIntosh tweeted that the residents had been rescued just after 1pm.
He posted: ‘RESCUED!! Thank you to the National Guard & the Galveston City Emergency crew for our rescue; @GalvestonOEM #houstonflood @NationalGuard’.
About 20 residents live in La Bella Vita, which is owned by Trudy Lampson, McIntosh’s mother-in-law.
Lampson’s daughter, Kimberly McIntosh said her mother was told not to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey because flooding had never been an issue before, the New York Daily News reported.
‘It’s never even flooded past the sidewalk. No one asked her to evacuate, but she has evacuation plans to leave.’
About 20 residents live in La Bella Vita, which is owned by Trudy Lampson, McIntosh’s mother-in-law. Lampson’s daughter, Kimberly McIntosh said her mother was told not to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Harvey because flooding had never been an issue before