The question of how senior communities should deal with out-of-the-ordinary expenses resulting from hurricane evacuations and similar calamities is now being drawing media attention. Meantime, talks with federal officials about the same subject, spurred by the evacuations forced on senior-living facilities by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year, are continuing.

Houston’s NBC affiliate, KPRC-TV 2, on September 27, reported that one of the country’s largest assisted-living providers, Emeritus, was requiring a $2,500 deposit from each resident of Memorial Oaks Assisted Living to defray the cost of transportation, temporary lodging, food and other care in the event a future evacuation becomes necessary. The amount is refundable at the end of each year and is not required if a relative agrees to evacuate a particular individual resident within 24 hours of a mandatory evacuation order. The report included comments from politicians and seniors advocates denouncing the deposit.

Assisted living communities, of course, face a potentially formidable expense in moving their residents to safety – and, unlike nursing homes, they don’t receive the help of federal funds.

“Assisted-living communities do not receive funds because 90 percent of their residents are paying out of private accounts,” explains Paul Williams, executive director of the Virginia-based Assisted Living Federation of America. “Nursing homes’ expenses are covered to great extent by government funds from Medicaid.”

Mr. Williams says talks with FEMA, Congress and others to see if rule changes could be made are continuing.

“Assisted-living communities have taken in frail populations during emergencies and given out a great deal of care that they were not compensated for,” Mr. Williams notes. “And a lot of communities are prepared to take them in in the future. This speaks volumes about the people who operate assisted-living communities.”