When the police arrived at the nursing home during Hurricane Harvey, more than a foot of water filled the one-story building — along with the stench of urine and feces. Volunteers with boats stood ready to remove the 70 frail residents, many of them in wheelchairs.
But the man in charge of Lake Arthur Place nursing home in Port Arthur refused to allow the evacuation, according to a police affidavit detailing the incident. He had to be handcuffed before police and volunteers could begin taking the elderly to shelters and hospitals.
That incident has put a Dallas company, Senior Care Centers, in the crosshairs of state regulators, who say it appears to have misunderstood state law and disaster protocols. The largest operator of nursing homes in Texas, Senior Care Centers owns almost 100 facilities across the state, including 17 in the Dallas area and two in Port Arthur.
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