I visited with Dad for about 1/2 hour and then strolled across the hall to give Mom equal time. She 'needed' supplies and decided to forgo the card game in favor of sending me to the store...no enough time for both, you know. So I ran my errands got back to Legacy just before six. I hadn't been there 30 seconds when the fire alarm started to sound. My first impression was 'fire drill' so I wasn't too concerned but I thought I would mosy down the hall just to make sure. I hadn't traveled too many steps before I figured out this was definitely not a drill.
All the management team had gone home for the day and the evening crew had taken over. The evening crew consists of CNA's (teenagers for the most part) and Medtechs (not much more than teenagers). The lead Medtech was in a panic...shaking and hardly able to speak...but was blubbering something about a roof collapse on the second floor. "People are probably dead up there"! she stammered.
The aide's had already started the evacuation process so I passed on going upstairs to try and help and went directly to Mom's room to prepare her for a trip across the street to the church parking lot. Fortunately the weather was the best of the year so far - mid 50's and clear. Meanwhile one of the aide's had started to get Dad ready and, after depositing Mom safely in the church parking lot, I met them at his doorway. He was already cussing and swearing at the poor girl for being in so much of a hurry! :) By now, the emergency crews had started to arrive and were assisting with the evacuation of the 97 residents and staff.
I started across the street with Dad and every crack in the pavement brought a "damn" or "hell" followed by some direction from my irritable passenger. Holy smoke, you'd thought I was dragging him naked through a snow storm or something!
In any event we made it safely to the cultural hall of the Bountiful Stake Center and snuggled with 200 other residents and family members. It wasn't long before the fire department sent in a rep to explain to everyone what had happened, which was that a 400 square foot section of ceiling crashed to the floor in the commons area on the second floor...bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'drop down ceiling'! Miraculously, there was no one in the normally occupied area. Most were having dinner either in the dining hall, directly below the accident area, or safely in their rooms.
To make a six hour, mostly uneventful very boring, story short we sat in the cultural hall until midnight when Gordon and Eloise were relocated to the newest wing of the Legacy House, the only portion of the large building deemed habitable. Of course the evening was brightened with a sweet sister playing hymns on the piano and 4 or 5 trips to the bathroom for Eloise.
We feel happy and blessed that no one was injured and that Gordon and Eloise endured this like the troopers that they are!
Here is the news story as reported on http://www.ksl.com/ and as covered in the Ogden Standard Examiner.
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
