In the days after Hurricane Ida blew into Louisiana, flooding streets, destroying homes and downing power lines, Melissa Barbier found herself in a wrenching predicament: She could not find her 64-year-old mother.

The power was down, and she could not make contact with anyone at Maison DeVille Nursing Home in Harvey, Louisiana, where her mom lived. Through the news, Barbier learned that residents had been evacuated to a warehouse, where conditions were so appalling that people had to be rushed elsewhere – and some had died. She called phone number after phone number, only to be redirected.

Finally, she said, on Sunday, someone working at a shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana, called to say that she had seen Madeleine Bergeron, Barbier’s mother. But Barbier said it is not clear when she might get to speak with Bergeron, who has dementia and needs help using the restroom.

“We’re in South Louisiana,” said Barbier, 36, who lives two hours from the warehouse, in Lafayette. “An emergency care plan should be in place … I can’t wrap my head around how nobody has contacted me. Who gave the authority to the nursing home to evacuate?”

“I feel like they herded my mom and these poor people like cattle,” she said.

Families are scrambling for answers as Louisiana authorities begin to investigate the evacuation of more than 800 residents at seven nursing homes to the warehouse in the town of Independence, where staff and local officials soon raised alarms about putrid smells, packed-in mattresses and EMTs allegedly sent away after residents called for help. The state health department ordered the homes to close Saturday, saying seven of its residents have died, with five of the fatalities deemed “storm-related.”

Ida’s broader toll on the state’s elderly also rose Sunday as the department said a 74-year-old man died “due to heat during an extensive power outage,” bringing Louisiana’s total fatalities to 13.

“What happened in Independence is reprehensible, and I know there are many families hurting as a result,” said Louisiana Health Secretary Courtney Phillips, while Louisiana State Health Officer Joseph Kanter decried an “affront to human dignity.”

Authorities have vowed further action, and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, said he is investigating the deaths. The state health department said its inspectors tried to visit the warehouse on Tuesday after hearing about “deteriorating conditions” and were kicked out as well as subjected to “intimidation” from the nursing homes’ owner.

“Our goal will be to determine who decided to move these patients to this apparently unsafe and potentially inappropriate facility,” Landry said Friday as the confirmed deaths were still rising. “We wish to determine who authorized that these patients be moved to that facility, who oversaw the movement, who later turned away career staff members of the Louisiana Department of Health when they attempted to look into this situation.”

The owner of the nursing homes, Bob Dean, could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday but suggested to a local news station that deaths among his residents were to be expected.

“Normally with 850 people, you’ll have a couple a day, so we did really good with taking care of people,” Dean told WAFB-TV.

Dean’s nursing homes have drawn scrutiny before, and most received the lowest possible rating after inspections, according to Medicare.gov. One resident’s death while waiting to be unloaded at a Baton Rouge shelter in 1998 – after elderly charges reportedly spent hours on a bus without air conditioning – drew media attention, the Associated Press reported. And the Times-Picayune in 2005 raised alarms about patient care at Dean’s facilities. One resident, the newspaper reported, was hospitalized after being attacked by ants.

News reports suggest that “this is not (Dean’s) first time doing this,” state Rep. Nicholas Muscarello Jr., a Republican who represents the parish that includes Independence, said in an interview. If investigations prove wrongdoing, Muscarello said, “he should lose every license, and he needs to be out of the nursing business.”

Muscarello said he went to the warehouse Tuesday with the mayor of Independence and others after hearing that “a lot of emergency calls” were coming from the facility. They arrived to find trash heaped outside – no dumpsters in sight – and, inside, elderly evacuees crowded onto mattresses only a few feet apart.

Muscarello said he was alarmed that their group could walk right in. “I’ve seen enough,” he recalled quickly telling his colleagues before escalating the issue to others in the legislature.

“Clearly (Dean) chose not to put any … resources into making this shelter a viable shelter,” the lawmaker said.

Residents of Dean’s nursing homes across four parishes were evacuated to the warehouse on Aug. 27 in anticipation of Hurricane Ida, authorities said. By Wednesday, the state health department was working to move them again. They started with “the most vulnerable” and “had rescued the vast majority” by the end of that day, the department said, adding that all nursing home residents were evacuated by Thursday.

As of Saturday, the department said, it had connected with more than 200 of the residents’ families.

A spokeswoman for the health department, Aly Neel, acknowledged an inquiry from The Washington Post seeking comment Sunday but said she needed some time to provide a response given “multiple investigations.”

Barbier said she believes her mother is in better hands now, and officials said this weekend that they intend on providing better care.

“They are well cared for right now. And they’ll stay that way until we can safely send them back,” Edward Mayeaux, associate vice chancellor for clinical affairs at LSU Health Shreveport, which is helping at a Bossier City shelter, told the Associated Press.

But Mayeaux said that some nursing home residents arrived without their medicine or information about their medical conditions. Family members and authorities alike are raising questions about why no one ensured better planning ahead of the storm.

“What frustrates me is, whether they were prepared for it or not, when it happened – instead of trying to cover it up – they should have just said, ‘OK, we’re in a bad situation,'” Muscarello said.