NYC to pay over evacuation of nursing home

NEW YORK -- The city agreed Monday to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming residents of a city-run nursing home were traumatized by the way they were abruptly evacuated because of concern for the facility's safety.

Brenda Tripp said she had to search for her mother, Eunice, who suffers from dementia, after the 1998 evacuation of the Neponsit Health Care Center.

"I couldn't find her for weeks," Tripp said. "I got no phone call. And she had no idea what was going on."

The city had said four buildings at Neponsit, a complex in the Rockaways section of Queens, were in danger of collapse. But it took weeks for many residents to be placed in new nursing homes, and some families say their care during that time was inadequate.

A court later stopped the city from demolishing the buildings. They remain standing but empty.