The specific reasons are as set forth in the Notice of Emergency Rule, published in the Florida Administrative Register on Monday, September 18, 2017, Volume 43, No. 180, pp. 4003-4005. As a result of the vulnerabilities and risks to the elderly population residing in Florida nursing homes that was evidenced by the impacts of Hurricane Irma, the Agency has promulgated Rule 59AER17-1 Nursing Home Emergency Power Plan to set forth the requirements for each nursing home to develop a plan to ensure the safety and health of residents in the event of the loss of electrical power. In the aftermath of the devastation left by Hurricane Irma, including the loss of life at a licensed nursing home facility due to an incompetent emergency response coupled with the loss of power to cooling systems, and facing the threat of two more potential hurricanes on a similar track toward Florida, the Agency took immediate steps to require nursing home facilities to develop and implement plans to ensure that each facility would be able to maintain temperatures at an appropriate level for a minimum of 96 hours in the event of the loss of electrical power. The experience of Hurricane Irma revealed that additional protections for the elderly were needed beyond reliance on evacuation plans, transfer agreements for evacuation of patients to other facilities, or third-party suppliers of emergency power in times of emergency, and staffing issues arise when facilities are without air conditioning, potentially immediately endangering the health, safety and welfare of the residents. Accordingly, the Emergency Rule was promulgated to direct licensed nursing homes to implement Emergency Power Plans for a minimum of 96 hours to protect patients and residents during the immediate aftermath of a major power outage and infrastructure disruption, not just during a hurricane. This Supplement does not repeal or modify the requirements of the Emergency Power Plan Rule. Instead, this supplement to Emergency Rule is adopted to provide guidance and direction on the submission of variance requests under current Florida law. Nursing homes must focus their efforts on ensuring their patients and residents will be protected during the immediate 96 hours following a community-wide disruption of operation of environmental controls.