As Hurricane Dorian continues to slowly make its way toward Florida, hundreds of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Florida still lack generators required by a state law enacted after a dozen nursing home residents died in sweltering conditions following Hurricane Irma in 2017.

About of Florida’s 687 nursing homes have been granted extensions of more than an additional year to meet the state generator requirements. That means that for the duration of at least 2 hurricane seasons since the law was past, those living in the homes lived without generators in the event of power outages.

About of the state’s roughly 3,070 assisted living facilities report having installed the equipment to meet the new legal requirements.

Those numbers have some officials worried.

“They’re not going to and it will fall to the county and municipalities” to take care of frail nursing home patients who could suffer from lack of air conditioning, said Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss earlier this year, according to a report in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 file photo, Janice Connelly of Hollywood, sets up a makeshift memorial in memory of the senior citizens who died in the heat at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, Florida.

(Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

At a Glance

A dozen nursing home residents died in one Florida nursing home after Hurricane Irma.The deaths prompted a new law that requires facilities to have an emergency air conditioning plan.With Hurricane Dorian on the way, a majority of nursing homes are not prepared.

The new regulations were implemented after twelve people died when a nursing home in Hollywood Hills, Florida, was without power for several days after Hurricane Irma. Residents of several other facilities were evacuated. The regulations require nursing homes have equipment that can maintain an ambient temperature at 81 degrees for 96 hours after an outage. Assisted living facilities have similar, more lenient standards for power and fuel storage. Previously, such facilities were only required to have enough power to support medical equipment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the issue in a press conference Friday morning. There are many nursing homes statewide, he said, for which the state does not have generator information. “The Agency for Health Care Administration is making site visits or calls to all facilities where the state does not have updated information about generators,” DeSantis said, and after the storm passes they will be doing spot checks.

Hurricane season in Florida typically peaks from August to October, one of the state's hottest times of the year.

The law was put into place in March 2018 with an original deadline of mid-November. Extensions have been granted to nearly all of the facilities that are still working to implement the changes.

Police surround the Rehabilitation Center in Hollywood Hills, Florida, in this Sept. 13, 2017, file photo.

(John McCall/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, File)

Patrick Manderfield, a spokesperson for the Agency for Health Care Administration, told News6 in Orlando that in order to be granted an facilities must have an adequate plan to keep patients and residents cool during a power outage, such a temporary generator on site, a plan to obtain a generator within 24 hours of a power outage or a full evacuation plan.

Manderfield said there are several challenges to implementation of the law, including availability of generators large enough for many nursing homes, difficulties in scheduling qualified installers and electricians and review and permitting processes.

The cost to come into compliance varies widely, but state economists estimated the cost to nursing home operators at over the first five years, with more than half that offset by Medicaid, CBS Miami reported. The tab for assisted living facilities was estimated at about $243 million.

Bob Misko, an environmental and systems consultant based in the Orlando area, said he has worked with nine nursing homes and more than 100 assisted living facilities to help them create a plan and install generators. Misko told weather.com that while the law is "absolutely necessary" to ensure the safety of patients and residents, it's difficult for some facilities to make the required improvements, especially in such a relatively short time frame.

“We want to do the best for our elderly. And this is a good deal, this is something that should have happened," Misko said of the law. "But it should have been phased in.”