INSIDE THE NURSING HOME THAT BECAME A DEADLY CAULDRON AFTER IRMA

Eyewitnesses watched the tragedy that killed 11 unfold

The panic started about 2:30 a.m. with a frantic worker’s shouts on the second floor of the Hollywood nursing home: “Code Blue, Code Blue, Two East, Two East!”

“[She] was screaming so loud and then she ran,” said Charlotte Adams, who was trying to keep her semi-paralyzed mother hydrated with water, ice and cranberry juice in the nursing home’s withering heat.

With that emergency call, Adams witnessed the chaos in a cauldron that would ultimately claim 11 lives after Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills. Her memories, and those of others who were there, offer a first-hand glimpse of those final, harrowing hours.

Adams had spent much of Monday, Tuesday and into early Wednesday making sure her mother was safe inside the baking hot center, which had been without air conditioning for three days.

In the hours before dawn that Wednesday morning, Sept. 13, sirens blared from Hollywood Fire-Rescue vehicles as they pulled up outside the home, Adams said. While paramedics were tending to the first patient, a second “Code Blue” rang out.

Adams peeked out of her 79-year-old mom’s room and saw an elderly man in the hallway, covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

“He looked like he was basically dying,” said Adams, 45, of Hollywood.

A second ambulance and rescue crew showed up. Adams saw them working on Carolyn Eatherly, 78, who shared a room on the second floor with Betty Hibbard, 84.

“They were working on Miss Eatherly. … They brought her out and she didn’t look good. She was sweaty and she was panting,” Adams said.

Both women died later that day at Memorial Regional Hospital, which was across the street. In the coming days, the number of dead would grow to 11 people, ages 70 to 99.

Adams was an almost daily visitor to the nursing home for the 2½ years since her mom, Christine Cooper, suffered a severe stroke that left her unable to walk or use her left side.

Once Hurricane Irma knocked out power to the air conditioning on Sunday, Sept. 10, the second floor of the two-story nursing home felt much hotter than the first. By early Wednesday morning, it left Adams feeling faint and dizzy.

“It had to be over 100 degrees … because my shirt was soaking wet — it was stuck to me and my pants were wet,” she said.

CARLINE JEAN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Charlotte Adams, of Hollywood, was in the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills taking care of her mother during the air conditioning outage. She and others have described the conditions that ended with its evacuation.

STAN BLAIR/COURTESY Margie Blair’s son, Stan, drove to buy fans for his mother, 85, and her roommate after her arrived to visit her Sept. 12 during the air-conditioning outage.

ERIKA PESANTES/STAFF Ray Granger, 72, was unharmed. He was evacuated to Broward Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.