families are reeling from the sudden closure of the Princeton Care Center a long-term care facility that last Friday gave residents less than a day's notice to be out with nowhere to go lawmakers are blaming the state for not having a plan in place to protect these most vulnerable seniors senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan spoke to the families of those affected I'm incredibly angry incredibly angry Stacy lawner's furious with the operators at Princeton Care Center a nursing home caught an extreme financial crisis that abruptly shut down the Friday of Labor Day weekend triggering an immediate emergency evacuation lonner's 73 year old mom Nora called her in a panic my mom gave me a call sobbing that she needed to be out she had just been diagnosed with cancer and for this to happen without any advance notice this is impossible there's no way there's no absolute Way phone video one family posted shows the facility in utter chaos PCC offered families several Alternatives but none nearby even doctors got caught by surprise as New Jersey Long-Term Care Advocates scrambled to place and transport residents while the State Health Department crisis Strike Team observed we're just interested in making sure if you were interested in that we would have known at least what was happening behind the scenes Elaine Willie spent hours at PCC finding a new home for her 93 year old mom Eileen who suffers from dementia she's Beyond angry that the nursing home shut down without warning but the state had been monitoring pcc's mounting financial troubles for months complete chaos really there was really no plan on how to execute anything we were on our own pretty much to figure out what to do there was a buyer and there everything ended at the last minute the buyer pulled out at the last minute this is the worst possible outcome for those residents long-term care Ombudsman Laurie Brewer says the chaos traumatized patients we found people who were asking us did I do something wrong why was I ripped from my home where are my friends regulations require a 60-day notice for a potential nursing home closure but the Department of Health can waive that requirement for an emergency evacuation the question is how do you define emergency the Department of Health statement says the facility was unable to pay its staff despite repeated assurances to the department that payroll would be made and could no longer provide care to its residents because of this the facility initiated its emergency evacuation plan for instance mayor says they had repeatedly asked the state for a plan to avoid emergency evacuations why not put a plan in place that said here's where we're going to put the people here's how we're going to get them there so we're not scrambling for hours on the at the very last minute to find vehicles to move people it was clear that the Department of Health was in a compliance mode and observing but not controlling the situation state senator Andrews wicker says an emergency pool of money should have been available to quite literally buy more time for residents and families industry spokesman Andy Aronson noted this type of abrupt closure should never happen when it's known that a nursing home is struggling the New Jersey Department of Health working with the provider has many tools to assure that residents are prioritized and an orderly closure takes place I think it's a crime that they put all these people their health their well-being at risk and they let it come to this situation and they need to be held responsible the Department of Health says it's actively reviewing the case to discuss solutions to further strengthen the quality and resiliency of our long-term care system that may help to avoid a situation like this from occurring again Willie says the families are discussing a lawsuit pcc's owner didn't return our call I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News