Helene and hospitals: A roof rescue, evacuations, and closures

With the strength and size of Hurricane Helene, hospitals across the southeastern United States had to prepare for the worst.

Virginia State Police helped transport dozens of staff trapped on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tenn. Heavy flooding washed out area roads.

Even before Helene struck Florida’s Big Bend region late Thursday night, hospitals closed clinics and postponed some elective surgeries. Some hospitals evacuated ahead of the storm.

When Helene arrived and traveled north, the deadly storm pounded communities across the Southeast with heavy winds and flooding. At least 52 deaths have been attributed to the hurricane, the Associated Press reports.

In Tennessee, more than 50 staff workers at Unicoi County Hospital had to scramble to the roof to escape flooding. They were forced to wait for hours until they could finally be evacuated via helicopter, with rapid flooding and strong winds impeding earlier rescue efforts.

Ballad Health, which operates Unicoi, said unusually swift and severe flooding washed out roads and prevented evacuations Friday morning. The hospital remains closed. The Virginia State Police captured video of the hospital surrounded by floodwaters.

Ballad also had to evacuate another hospital, Sycamore Shoals Hospital, in Elizabethton, Tenn., and transfer its patients to another facility. Sycamore Shoals’ emergency room remained open for local patients in need, the system said. Ballad also postponed elective surgeries across the system.

In Florida, eight hospitals evacuated and transferred patients to other facilities, said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association.

In an interview early Friday afternoon, Mayhew said officials were still assessing regions but many Florida hospitals appeared to weather the storm. She expressed relief that Tallahassee, the state’s capital, perilously close to where the storm reached landfall, avoided the devastation some had feared. But some nearby communities weren’t so fortunate, she said.

“The communities south of Tallahassee on the coast, I’m really concerned,” she said. “A lot of devastation.”

Communities such as Cedar Key, Crystal City and other coastal towns in Florida, some of which were battered by Hurricane Idalia a year ago, saw many homes and businesses destroyed, she said.

Storm surges and flooding from Florida’s rivers inundated communities along much of Florida’s west coast, and Mayhew cautioned that the threat of flooding can persist in the coming days, posing problems for hospitals.

In a statewide call with more than 200 Florida hospitals, Mayhew said most facilities avoided heavy damage.

“I am so incredibly grateful to hear that their facilities fared well,” Mayhew said. “And it is important to underscore their facilities fared well, because they have made such significant investments in hardening their facilities, in their preparedness, that they're able to withstand this kind of a storm and be operational.”

But she said some Florida hospital employees have had serious damage to their own properties, with some seeing their homes wiped out.

Hospital officials talked of “their staff having lost a lot, their homes destroyed,” Mayhew said.

“Many of these heroes were at their hospitals responding to the crisis and then receiving word that their homes were destroyed,” she said. “Obviously my heart, my heart, my prayers, go out to all those families.”

With flooding likely to be a problem for days, Mayhew also said she is worried about the difficulty for ambulances to reach and transport patients.

“The other challenge, of course, is the ability for EMS transport to get to certain communities, to get to certain neighborhoods because of the extent of the damage from flooding,” Mayhew said.

Tampa General Hospital staff install the AquaFence to protect its main campus from storm surge.

Even with heavy flooding in the Tampa Bay area, Tampa General Hospital said its facilities had weathered the storm. Tampa General installed its AquaFence around its main campus, which prevented storm surge from inundating the hospital.

The health system closed one hospital, TGH Crystal River in Citrus County, and transferred patients ahead of the storm. Tampa General opened the facility Friday night. Tampa General also reopened three emergency centers it had closed ahead of Helene’s arrival.

Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare closed many of its facilities ahead of the storm, but planned to reopen most of its urgent care facilities Saturday.

HCA Florida, which operates 46 hospital campuses in the state, had most of its facilities open, but HCA Florida Pasadena remained closed Friday night.

In Georgia, Emory Healthcare closed ambulatory surgery centers and clinics Friday, making the call to close those facilities the previous day. Emory’s hospitals and businesses remained open. Grady also closed its clinics Friday.

North Carolina suffered heavy flooding due to the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Tatyana Kelly, senior vice president of the North Carolina Healthcare Association, said some health systems closed facilities due to the storm.

“Helene is a historic storm, bringing heavy rain, flooding and the potential of wind damage to North Carolina,” Kelly said in an email. “Hospitals and health systems are monitoring and responding to weather conditions across the state. Some affected facilities have proactively rescheduled hours and some services to ensure safety of patients and staff, but all continue to serve their communities 24/7 and provide emergency services.”

With Florida seeing hurricanes on a regular basis, Mayhew said hospitals will look to analyze their performance. After health systems resume more normal operations and assess damage, Mayhew said they will undoubtedly look to see what can be done in the future.

“We'll continue to assess how some of the flood mitigation strategies worked at our respective hospitals that have deployed those, just so that we all continue to learn from these experiences and continue to strengthen and harden our facilities,” Mayhew said.