Authorities find body at evacuated senior village

The day after Hurricane Irma struck Central Florida, crews evacuated hundreds of seniors from the flooded Good Samaritan Society — Kissimmee Village south of Kissimmee, and the village website on Tuesday night still said “all of our residents and staff members are safe and accounted for.”

One resident, however, was found dead in her bed. Her family is angry that Good Samaritan has not mentioned the death.

Deputies discovered the body of Marlene Lowry, 74, with a blanket wrapped around her in the apartment where she lived alone, a report from the Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner’s Office states.

“It feels like they’re ignoring that somebody did pass away during the storm,” said Karrie Wiecek, of Orlando, Lowry’s only daughter. “I listened to their update, and they said everyone was OK — that’s disrespectful to my mother.”

The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office has records showing it responded to an “unattended death” in the neighborhood. The cause of death is unknown because Lowry’s body is at a funeral home and not yet turned over to the medical examiner for an autopsy.

Luann Foos, the village’s executive director, wouldn’t comment because of privacy concerns and directed additional questions to a corporate spokesman. That spokesman didn’t return a call seeking comment.

If Lowry’s death is classified as

a storm-related death by state officials, it would be the first one in Osceola County. Lowry, a retired nurse from Michigan, had four adult children she raised alone after her husband died about 50 years ago, the family said.

Lowry’s family last spoke to her on the evening of Sept. 10, as bands of powerful winds and rains began sweeping across Central Florida.

In the storm’s buildup, Marlene Lowry closely watched the Weather Channel’s storm coverage. She was concerned about the storm but had decided not to evacuate to Walt Disney World or Lake Mary with her children, family members said. She had lived at the village for about a year.

“She was worried about the storm, but the day I talked to her, she didn’t seem worried anymore,” said Brett Lowry of Largo, one of her sons.

As the storm passed, calls to Marlene Lowry’s cellphone went straight to voicemail, and worry began to grow. They called the village and the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office to check on her. Deputies arrived just after 8 p.m. Sept. 12 and found Lowry dead. Rescuers earlier that day evacuated at least 500 residents, some with medical needs, as the nearby Shingle Creek reached historic water levels.

Floodwaters were about 5 feet deep in parts of the village, officials said at the time. Good Samaritan’s website states about 80 percent of the apartments — about 525 — will need repairs.

But Brett Lowry said deputies told him that his mother’s unit wasn’t flooded at the time, but waters were still rising. The Osceola Sheriff’s Office would not comment.

Elsewhere in the state, eight patients died in a South Florida nursing home that lost air conditioning in the aftermath of Irma, and police have launched a criminal investigation.