Hospitals Still Feeling Impacts of Hurricane Helene

A week after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc across the Southeast, the storm’s impact on healthcare continues.

Hospitals in states including Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia have all felt the effects to varying degrees.

For instance, in Erwin, Tennessee, dozens of people were rescued from Unicoi County Hospital after waiting for hours on the roof of the building and in lifeboats due to rising floodwaters, NBC News reported.

“We all eventually started kind of panicking because water just kept rising, and we didn’t know when we would get rescue to us,” Angel Mitchell, 46, whose 83-year-old mother had been admitted days earlier for pneumonia, told NBC News. “We all started kind of getting really scared that the whole building was going to be under [water] or it was going to collapse.”

Ultimately, it took rescue boats and helicopter crews from the Tennessee Army National Guard and Virginia State Police to safely transfer people out of the facility, NBC News reported.

In western North Carolina, Asheville’s Mission Hospital operated on a backup generator for several days before power was restored, North Carolina Health News reported. However, water still remains a challenge.

One nurse told NBC News that the “entire water infrastructure to the area was obliterated,” adding that the sewage system was so backed up it wasn’t possible to flush toilets at the hospital.

“We were pooping in bags and buckets,” the nurse said, adding that the lack of water also meant they couldn’t help patients who were drenched in floodwater saturated with gasoline, chemicals, and other toxins to get cleaned up.

Mission Hospital still has “no pressurized water,” Nancy Lindell, director of public and media relations for HCA Healthcare’s North Carolina Division/Mission Health, told MedPage Today in an email.

HCA, which acquired Mission in 2019, said it has supplied more than 20 tanker trucks of water each day to keep clinical operations running. There are also plans for additional mobile units to be used as kitchens, bathrooms, handwashing stations, and laundry facilities on-site, according to reports.

The company has also bussed in healthcare workers from other states to provide relief to hospital staff who have been working long hours, and in some cases, unable to check on their own families and homes, North Carolina Health News reported.

“This is a difficult time and we are doing all we can to bring help and relief to those in need,” Lindell told MedPage Today. “Our staff, all of whom have been personally affected by this storm, have been exceptional, and we are grateful for their dedication to our patients.”

On Wednesday, HHS said that medical teams from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s National Disaster Medical System are providing care across western North Carolina to support local hospitals and shelters, and that, overall, approximately 300 personnel have been deployed in the region.

In Florida, hospitals along the Gulf Coast and panhandle were well-prepared for Helene, AP reported. Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, attributed the preparedness to experience from previous storms and statewide coordination.

For Tampa General Hospital, preparedness meant a temporary flood wall, called the AquaFence, to stay dry, the Washington Post reported. Tampa General invested in the barrier — which can withstand 15 feet of storm surge — in 2019, as the hospital is the only Level 1 trauma center in the region, the Post noted.

In neighboring Georgia, hospitals were affected by strong winds, AP reported. For instance, patients had to be moved to another part of Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla because a nearby gas station caught fire.

It’s not just hospitals that are feeling the effects of Helene. An AP analysis of federal Medicare data showed that at least 540,000 people in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina use in-home medical equipment powered by electricity. (Power outages battered the Southeast during and after the storm.)

Healthcare executives across the Southeast said it will be a long road back to normalcy. North Carolina Health News noted that emergency crews “are still rescuing people; floodwaters stewing with storm debris, runoff, and removal of downed trees pose health risks for people as they move around more.”