By CHRISTOPHER SMITH

The staff at Andalusia Manor went above and beyond their duties to make sure the residents were taken care of in this chilling weather.

Sixteen CNAs, LPNs, caretakers, and administrators all stayed throughout the night on Tues., Jan. 16, to take care of residents.

“We are so proud of our staff and can’t thank them enough for giving up their personal time to go beyond what we ask of them,” Trece Mays, administrator of Andalusia Manor, said.

Mays said that they talked with the staff and they knew just what to do in the face of this cold weather.

“We usually do this whenever we have a natural disaster and we do it to give the residents a sense of comfort and safety,” Mays said.

Emily Cain, another employee of Andalusia Manor, said that they provided cots and food to employees that wanted to stay and help.

Pat Henagan drove his RV to Andalusia Manor and stayed the night to help as well.

“I knew that the people here would need help and there is no reason to drive in this dangerous weather so I just parked the RV instead of sleeping on the couch!” Henagan, the director of environmental services, said.

“Another reason we do this is not only for the resident’s safety, but for our own employee’s safety,” Vickie White, the nurse director, said “The majority of the staff doesn’t live in the city, we have some as far away as Escambia County, so we advise them to stay the night as well so we can make sure that they are safe and off the road.”

The low on Tuesday was 20 degrees so the staff tapped into the natural disaster supply and got everything that they needed to keep the residents safe.

“We rounded up all the departments and made a plan about what to do and it turned out to be a great success,” Mays said, “I couldn’t be more proud of my employees.”

Preliminary plans were to continue to have employees stay on site as long as road safety is a concern.