Is Your Parent's Assisted Living Hurricane-Ready? What Out-of-State Families Should Ask About Generators, Evacuation Plans, and Who Stays On Site

Is Your Parent's Assisted Living Hurricane-Ready? What Out-of-State Families Should Ask About Generators, Evacuation Plans, and Who Stays On Site

It's 11 p.m. in Ohio, or New Jersey, or Illinois. You are watching a storm cone on the news, and somewhere inside it is your mother's assisted living community in South Florida. You don't know where the generator is or whether it even runs her air conditioning. You don't know who is staying in the building overnight, or whether anyone will call you if the power goes out.

That worry is reasonable. You can't see the building from where you are. I can, because I walk through these communities every week in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, and Miami-Dade counties.

The short answer is that Florida assisted living communities are among the most hurricane-prepared residential settings anywhere in the country. That preparation is required by law, inspected by the state, and tied directly to a community's license. The longer answer is that the law sets a floor, not a ceiling. Two buildings can both be fully compliant and offer very different experiences during a five-day power outage.

Here's what you need to know: what Florida requires, what it doesn't, how building age changes the picture, and the exact questions to ask so you aren't guessing the next time a storm forms in the Atlantic.

What Florida Requires of Every Assisted Living Community

Florida's assisted living communities (often called ALFs, short for assisted living facilities, the term used in state regulation) are licensed and inspected by AHCA, the Agency for Health Care Administration. When AHCA surveys a community, emergency preparedness is part of what they review. Two requirements matter most for hurricane season.

The Generator Requirement

After Hurricane Irma in 2017, when residents of a South Florida nursing home died after the building lost air conditioning, the state moved quickly. Florida adopted rules requiring assisted living communities and nursing homes to have an emergency power source and a plan to keep residents cool when the grid goes down.

As I tell families on tours: "You have to have a generator. Now that generator is not required to generate electricity for everyone's rooms. So every single facility handles that differently."

Here is what the rule generally requires, as of this writing (Florida Administrative Code Rule 59A-36.025):

• An alternate power source, such as a generator, sufficient to keep a designated area of the building at 81 degrees Fahrenheit or cooler
• Enough space in that cooled area for every resident, with at least 20 net square feet per resident
• Enough fuel to run that system for at least 96 hours after power is lost, with on-site fuel storage requirements that vary by the size of the community
• A written emergency power plan submitted for review and kept on file

Some communities own permanent, installed generators. Others contract to rent portable units that are delivered when a storm approaches. Both can be compliant. What you want to know is which one your parent's community uses, and what happens if the rental company is serving fifty other buildings that same week.

The Evacuation Plan Requirement

The second requirement is a written emergency management plan, which includes evacuation procedures. "Everyone has to have an evacuation plan in order to get their licensure from AHCA."

That plan, often called a comprehensive emergency management plan, is reviewed by the county emergency management office. It has to address where residents will go if the building must be evacuated, how they will be transported, how medications and records travel with them, and how staff will be organized. AHCA checks this during the licensing process and during routine surveys.

Regulations get updated, so if you want to read the current language yourself, AHCA's website and the Florida Administrative Code are the primary sources. A good community administrator will also walk you through their own plan without hesitation.

What Florida Does Not Require, and Why It Matters to Your Parent

This is the part most out-of-state families don't know, and it is the part that matters most for daily comfort during an extended outage.

Air Conditioning in Every Room Is Not Required

The law requires a cooled area large enough for all residents. It does not require that every resident's apartment stay cool. In practice, that means some communities will gather residents in a common area, a dining room, or a hallway where the generator-powered air conditioning reaches.

For a resident who is mobile and social, sitting in a cool dining room with neighbors for a couple of days is manageable. For someone with significant mobility limitations, advanced dementia, or a strong attachment to routine, being moved out of their own room for an extended period can be genuinely hard. Sleep gets disrupted. Confusion can increase. Some residents simply refuse to leave their apartment, which puts staff in the position of checking on them in a hot room.

The Range Between Buildings Is Wide

Some of the upper-end communities I work with run generator power into individual resident rooms, so air conditioning continues in each apartment. That is rare, but it exists. Many mid-range communities power the common areas, the kitchen, refrigeration for medications, and essential lighting, and cool a designated space for residents to gather.

Neither approach is wrong, and both can meet the law. But you should know which one your parent will experience before a storm, not during it.

A Story From the Beach: Why These Rules Exist

Years ago, before evacuation plans were required, I watched a beachfront assisted living community go through a full evacuation with no plan in place. The building sat right on the ocean in Broward County with a full house of residents, many of them living with memory loss.

When the evacuation order came, the administrator was calling me, scrambling to find nursing homes that would take her residents. Beds were full everywhere. She ended up housing people in a motel. Residents with dementia, in an unfamiliar place, with staff doing their best with no structure behind them. Nobody had ever asked her to plan for this, because nobody had required it.

Afterward, she did what she should have been required to do from the start: she signed a contract with a motel in advance so she would have a guaranteed place to move her residents the next time.

I don't tell that story to frighten anyone. I tell it because it is the reason the current rules exist, and because it shows how much has changed. Today, that scramble would not pass an AHCA survey. Every licensed community has to show, on paper and in practice, where its residents go and how they get there.

Newer Buildings Versus Older Buildings

Building age is one of the most overlooked factors in hurricane readiness, and one of the easiest to ask about.

What "Hurricane Code" Means

After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Florida rebuilt its building code. Miami-Dade and Broward counties fall within what is called the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, which carries some of the strictest wind standards in the country. Buildings constructed under the modern Florida Building Code are designed for impact-resistant windows and doors, stronger roof attachments, and better protection against wind-driven rain.

Newer assisted living buildings are going to be built to hurricane code, period. That is not a selling point the community invented; it is a condition of getting a certificate of occupancy.

Older Buildings Are Catching Up Over Time

More mature buildings are often upgrading in stages: replacing windows, reinforcing roofs, adding shutters, upgrading generators as budgets allow. An older building is not automatically a worse choice. Some older communities have excellent staff, long-tenured caregivers, and strong emergency plans. But you should ask what has been updated and what has not.

Useful questions include:

• When was the building constructed, and has it been renovated?
• Are the windows impact-rated, or does the building rely on shutters?
• If shutters, who installs them, and how far in advance of a storm?
• When was the roof last replaced or inspected?

What I Point Out on Every Tour

When I tour a community with a family, I make a point of showing them the preparation that locals take for granted. I'll stop at a window and say, you see that, those are hurricane windows. Every single community has a generator, and sometimes it's right there on the property and I'll walk the family over and say, here's the generator.

I do that because people who live here don't carry the same fear about hurricanes. I have pallets of water in the corner of my own home right now, and that's just normal for us. For a family flying in from somewhere without hurricanes, seeing the generator with their own eyes changes the whole conversation.

Power Restoration: Why Location Matters

When the grid goes down across South Florida, power does not come back everywhere at once. Utilities restore critical infrastructure first. Florida Power and Light's restoration plan prioritizes hospitals and other essential facilities, and in my experience, nursing homes and assisted living communities are high on the list.

There is also a practical effect of geography. A community located near a hospital often shares the same power infrastructure and tends to get power back quickly, because crews are restoring that area early. I have seen this firsthand in buildings that sit next to major hospitals.

This is not a guarantee, and no community can promise you when power will return. But it is a reasonable factor to weigh, especially if your parent is sensitive to heat or depends on powered medical equipment. Ask the administrator how long power was out after the last major storm. Their answer will tell you a lot.

Who Stays On Site During a Storm

A generator and a written plan only work if there are people in the building to carry them out.

Staffing During a Hurricane

Communities should be fully staffed during a storm, and the staff on duty generally stay on site until it passes. Many communities organize ride-out teams: caregivers, nurses, kitchen staff, and maintenance workers who arrive before conditions deteriorate and stay through the storm.

Some communities go a step further and allow staff members to bring their own families to shelter on site. That matters more than it sounds. A caregiver whose children are safe in the building down the hall is a caregiver who can focus on your mother.

Ask directly:

• How many staff members stay on site during a hurricane, and for how long?
• Is there a nurse in the building through the storm?
• Can staff bring their families to shelter on site?
• How is food, water, and medication supply handled for several days?

Can You Shelter With Your Parent?

This surprises many families. "A lot of times I have families that stay with their families in the assisted living because the assisted livings are actually safer and more prepared." By law, these buildings are often better prepared for a hurricane than a private home.

Every building has its own policies, so ask in advance and get the answer in writing if you plan to come down. In my experience, I have not had a community turn away a family member who wanted to sit in the hallway with their parent during a storm in many years. But capacity is finite, and the community will need to know who is coming, how many people, and whether you are bringing supplies.

If you live out of state, also think about whether a local relative or friend could shelter on site, or whether you are better served by staying put and relying on the community's communication plan.

Communication When You're a Thousand Miles Away

For out-of-state families, the hardest part of a hurricane is not knowing. Cell towers go down. Landlines go out. The front desk is overwhelmed.

Before a storm, find out:

• How the community will update families, whether by text alerts, email, a phone tree, or social media
• Who your direct contact is, and a backup if that person is unavailable
• How you'll be notified if residents are evacuated, and where they are going
• Whether your parent's phone can be charged on generator power

Make sure the community has your current cell number and email, and those of at least one other family member. If your parent has a care manager or advocate locally, make sure the community knows that person and has permission to share information with them.

What To Do Now

We are in the final weeks of the 2026 hurricane season, which runs through November 30. This is a good time to close any gaps, and an even better time to prepare for next season, which begins June 1, 2027.

This Week

• Call the community and ask three questions: Where does the generator power go? Where will my parent be during an outage? How will you contact me?
• Confirm your contact information is current, and add a second family member.
• Ask whether family members can shelter on site and what notice the community needs.

This Month

• Request a copy or summary of the emergency management plan, including the evacuation destination and transportation arrangements.
• Ask how the building performed in the last major storm: how long power was out, whether residents were evacuated, and what they changed afterward.
• Review your parent's medication supply and medical equipment needs. Anything that requires power or refrigeration should be addressed in the plan.

This Quarter

• If you are considering a move, add hurricane readiness to your evaluation criteria alongside level of care, location, and cost. Ask about building age, window ratings, generator type, and fuel arrangements on every tour.
• Identify a local point of contact, whether a relative, friend, or professional advocate, who can physically check on your parent if you can't get there.
• Put a family plan in writing before June: who travels, who stays, who calls the community, and who makes decisions if evacuation happens.

The Bottom Line

"In Florida, we're really prepared. Extremely prepared. It's the individuals that are not prepared." Assisted living communities here are required to have generators, cooled space, and AHCA-reviewed evacuation plans, but the law leaves real differences between buildings, and the only way to know what your parent will experience is to ask the right questions before the next storm forms.

If your parent is already in a South Florida community, use the questions above this week. If you are still deciding where your parent should live, hurricane readiness belongs on the list of things you evaluate in person.

Your Next Step

If you are evaluating assisted living for a parent in Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, or Miami-Dade county and can't be here to see the buildings yourself, I walk these communities every week, generators, windows, and all. Visit Ruskin Senior Services (opens in a new tab) to learn how placement works and schedule a structured conversation about your parent's level of care, location, and what to look for before you choose a community.