Hospital-Based Medicine > > General Hospital Practice– Dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital
by Associated Press September 27, 2024
NASHVILLE, Tenn.– Patients and their caretakers looked for shelter Friday on a Tennessee health center’s roofing system after flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene drove them from the structure’s interior and conditions made rescue efforts hard.
The remarkable scene at Unicoi County Hospital near the North Carolina border was among numerous that played out throughout the southern U.S. in Helene’s wake, as flooding brought on by its storm rise and rain sent out countless law enforcement officer, firemens, National Guard members, and others on rescue objectives. Hundreds were conserved, however a minimum of 40 passed away.
Unicoi County Hospital attempted to leave 11 clients and 43 others Friday early morning after the Nolichucky River overruned its banks and flooded the center, however the water was too treacherous for boats sent out by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
The choice was made to direct more than 50 individuals to the roofing system. Another 7 had actually been briefly stuck in rescue boats. Ballad Health, which runs the little 10-bed health center, requested individuals’s prayers as it offered the social networks upgrade.
After other helicopters stopped working to reach the health center since of the storm’s winds, a Virginia State Police helicopter had the ability to arrive on the roofing. 3 National Guard helicopters with hoist abilities were sent out, authorities stated.
In a later post, Ballad Health stated all of the personnel and clients had actually been saved about 4 hours after lots of them were transferred to the health center’s roofing. Clients were moved to a various center and nobody stayed at the healthcare facility.
“The water there just turned up quicker with more particles than was safe to run in the rafts to transport from a dry point back to the medical facility,” stated Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee’s emergency situation operations director.
In Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search-and-rescue workers will be focused on protecting and supporting afflicted neighborhoods through the weekend, stated Kevin Guthrie, the state’s emergency situation operations director. The Category 4 storm made landfall on the northwest Florida coast late Thursday, however it developed flooding from storm rise the whole time the state’s Gulf Coast.
“As those sorts of rescue objectives occur today, and continue, please do not head out and go to the affected locations,” Guthrie stated at a Friday press conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. “I ask of you, do not get in their method.”
The reported saves varied from lethal circumstances to individuals caught in their homes by waist-high water and not able to leave by themselves.