While hospitals and health care organizations in the Southeast largely stayed open and functioning during Hurricane Helene to provide essential care for their communities, they were not unscathed.
The massive system battered the region's health centers, causing blackouts, wind damage, supply issues and flooding — leading to a dramatic rescue of patients and workers at the Unicoi County Hospital in eastern Tennessee.
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Most hospitals used generators or backup systems to power their facilities through the hurricane. Many places halted elective procedures. Few closed completely.
Providers, like their communities, are now in the recovery phase. Health care workers are still unaccounted for in western North Carolina, where at least 57 people died in and around Asheville. Officials also say mental health care facilities were destroyed in that area.
Health care executives across the Southeast all say it'll be a long road back to normal.
“I feel really positive about our health care system’s response,” said Rob Hudspeth, senior vice president at UNC Health Appalachian. “But this is not going to be a one or two-week set of circumstances.”
Trying to call staff in North Carolina
All three of UNC Health Appalachian’s facilities were on backup power supplies at one point and they were fully stocked with supplies, including oxygen, Hudspeth said. But some things are harder to predict, like the collapse of cellphone networks and roads.
Until Monday, the system had no way to communicate with staff. As of Wednesday, 25% of UNC Health Appalachian’s staff was unaccounted for. The biggest challenge now, Hudspeth said, is locating those people.
Three of 129 community health centers in western North Carolina were damaged, said ReAnne Mayo, spokesperson for Agape Health Services, which is not affiliated with the ones that were damaged but is part of a network of community health centers. They are also struggling to locate staff.
The centers are essential to providing primary care and mental health care to their communities.
“I think that everyone prepared for a catastrophe, but not an all-out wipe out,” Mayo said. “The one concern I really have is the aftermath. How long can someone go without treatment and medications, especially behavioral health, before it becomes catastrophic?”
Mission Hospital in Asheville is setting up mobile units with kitchens, bathrooms and handwashing stations, as well as “Mini Marts” stocked with free food, water and toiletries.
“Hospitals are really great at being able to anticipate what the immediate needs are going to be,” said Tatyana Kelly, senior vice president of the North Carolina Healthcare Association. “In good news, one of the things that's a huge success is that no facilities are closed."
Power returning, hospitals reopening
South Carolina officials said Monday that power was back on at all hospitals. Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System in the northwest part of the state, said that “numerous partners have worked together to address a critical need for those with oxygen concentrators, organizing charging stations where individuals can access life-saving power.”
At least 540,000 people in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina use in-home medical equipment powered by electricity, an Associated Press analysis of federal Medicare data shows.
Grid power was back on at all 22 acute-care hospitals in western North Carolina on Wednesday, state officials said.
In eastern Tennessee, hospital chain Ballad Health had to evacuate patients and staff from its Sycamore Shoals Hospital in fear of rising floodwaters on Friday. But by Wednesday, it was accepting patients again.
Its Unicoi County Hospital, where staff and patients fled to the roof as floodwaters swamped the building, now has a propane leak and is still closed.
Florida's hospitals ‘continually' tested
Hospitals along Florida's Gulf Coast and panhandle were well-prepared for Helene, thanks to experience and statewide coordination, said Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association.
“Unfortunately, we have had far too many experiences over many years for hospitals to be continually testing their emergency preparedness,” she said.
Tampa General Hospital successfully used a temporary floodwall to avoid a water surge as Helene rolled in Thursday. Erinn Skiba, assistant director of public safety at the hospital, said they've only had to deploy it a few times prior to Helene.
“We have not seen a storm of this size impact the west central Florida in decades,” she said. “So this storm really tested it, and it kept us dry.”
Only six hospitals out of 300-plus in Florida had to evacuate, Mayhew said. And of health care network HCA Florida’s 46 hospitals, only its Pasadena location remained closed Wednesday.
Wind problems in Georgia
Georgia health care centers felt the effects of Helene's high-speed winds. Patients had to be moved to another part of Irwin County Hospital in Ocilla during the storm because a nearby gas station caught fire, hospital CFO Krystal Carver said.
An hour south in Valdosta, a downed tree blocked the South Georgia Medical Center’s driveway on Thursday night, blocking a family from getting care, public information officer Erika Bennett said. Staffers ran out to help them get inside — part of an overall hurricane effort deemed “heroic” by Ronald Dean, the CEO of the four-hospital system who was at the main campus in Valdosta that night.
Hospital system administrators started preparing days ahead, making sure backup generators and communication systems were ready to go. They paused elective surgeries while on emergency power.
South Georgia Medical Center resumed normal operations Tuesday.
“Being this far inland, we’ve really we’ve never imagined we’d have 100-plus mile per hour winds and the devastation that we experienced as a result of the storm,” Dean said. “And truthfully, I hope I never do again.”
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Associated Press data journalist Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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This story was first published on Oct. 2, 2024. It was updated on Oct. 6, 2024, to correct that three of 129 community health centers were damaged, not 10 of 13 suffering severe damage.