Roof Torn from Wayland Nursing Home During Storm

A couple of patients have moved into new rooms and crews have been busy at work since Monday night cleaning up the mess left behind when Hurricane Sandy peeled back a portion of the roof of Wayland Nursing and Rehabilitation.

Wayland Nursing medical secretary and activities director Sara Cain said employees at the center heard a bang around 7 p.m. Monday and then water began leaking in through the ceilings of several rooms.

Because wind gusts remained unpredictable and strong, workers were unable to tarp the roof until Tuesday morning, so water leaked in throughout the night, making two patient rooms, the therapy room, the nurses station and some office space unusable.

In the midst of it all, the center never lost power.

Wayland Fire Chief Vinnie Smith said during Tuesday morning's Local Emergency Planning Committee meeting that he hoped it would be possible to keep the patients at the center given the logistical difficulties of relocating them.

“We can do it, if we have to relocate those patients," Smith said. "I’m going to stress that we should try to keep those patients at the site with their regular doctors."

Later Tuesday, Smith and Wayland Health Director Julia Junghann's visited the center and determined that the facilities were, in fact, enough intact to keep all the patients there.

Cain explained that only two patient rooms were affected by the damage, a man's and a woman's, and the center happened to have two vacant rooms at the time, a man's and a woman's. It was possible to temporarily relocate the patients while repairs are completed.

She added that, with the exception of the two patient rooms, the affected areas are not critical to each resident's day-to-day life at the center and can be avoided for the time being.

"Most of them, I think, don't even realize it happened," Cain said, adding that all the patients' families had been contacted about the situation. Many family members even offered to help with the clean-up.

Sandy Crews have been vacuuming up water and working toward resolving the issue.

Executive Director Sandy Guidrey said they do not yet have an estimate of how long the repairs will take or how much they will cost.