1 of 3 | Florida Gov. Rick Scott speaks to reporters following a meeting with President Donald Trump on the government's responses to the recent hurricanes in Washington, D.C., on Friday. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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Sept. 29 (UPI) -- A 12th patient evacuated from a sweltering Florida nursing home in the wake of Hurricane Irma has died, state officials said Friday as Gov. Rick Scott met with President Donald Trump on recovery efforts.
The Hollywood Police Department said Dolores Biamonte, 57, died Thursday night, more than two weeks after she was evacuated from the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills along with other patients. Eight people died at the facility after it lost power to its air conditioning system. Others died after being evacuated to Memorial Regional Hospital across the street.
The medical examiner's office said that because Biamonte's symptoms were similar to the other patients who had died, she's being included in the death toll from the incident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was investigating what led to the deaths.
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration on Sept. 20 said it suspended the nursing home's license. A week earlier, it stopped the facility from admitting new patients.
Also on Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Donald Trump to talk about recovery efforts from Hurricane Irma. Along with Vice President Mike Pence, they also talked about Scott's trip to Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by Hurricane Maria.
"In Florida, we have the opportunity as Floridians that we can deal with different issues than probably the federal government can, we have similar departments like the department of education, or dept of transportation that does things similar to the territory of Puerto Rico," Scott told reporters outside the White House. "We're going to do everything we can to help Puerto Rico."
Scott said he wants to accelerate repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee in south central Florida. His biggest concerns, he said, were destruction in the Florida keys, and housing problems and debris cleanup throughout the state.
"Our state has come back strong, we have our power back, people are back in business," he said.
