Senior citizens in viral photo rescued from flooded assisted living center in Houston

The senior citizens who appear in a now-viral photo showing them submerged in waist-deep water in a Texas assisted-living center flooded by Hurricane Harvey over the weekend have been relocated to a nearby facility and a hospital.

Tim McIntosh, whose mother-in-law owns the facility in Dickinson, Texas, told The Associated Press Monday the National Guard rescued 20 people Sunday, about three hours after he shared on Twitter the harrowing photo of the living room of the La Vita Bella facility. The photo shows at least six senior citizens waist-deep in murky water, at least one sitting on a rolling walker, in a room with a popcorn machine, a cat and some bottles of water on a table.

"They are all doing fine," said McIntosh, who defended facility owner, Trudy Lampson, who some accused on social media of not evacuating the facility on time. He said Lampson had made arrangements to evacuate the residents, but local authorities told her to stay put.

"The nursing home had to follow protocol because it's a big ordeal to evacuate it," he said. "These ladies are on wheelchairs and most of them on oxygen."

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