Hurricane Michael Forces Florida Hospitals to Shut Down

Bay Medical Sacred Heart in Panama City, Fla., sustained heavy damage in Hurricane Michael. PHOTO: BAY MEDICAL SACRED HEART

By Melanie Evans - Wall Street Journal

Hurricane Michael has forced five hospitals in Florida to close, and two more facilities in coastal Panama City were evacuating patents Thursday, reporting that the storm had damaged their roofs, buckled walls and shattered windows.

Two more hospitals in the state said they planned to evacuate following the hurricane, which came ashore Wednesday, bringing to nine the number of Florida hospitals shut down by the storm.

In addition to the hospitals, five nursing homes and 15 assisted-living facilities said they had closed, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration Another six nursing homes also planned to evacuate as of mid-afternoon.

In Georgia, the hurricane left about 20 hospitals and 15 nursing homes running on generators and the state’s Department of Health said it was conducting preliminary damage assessments.

Panama City’s Bay Medical Sacred Heart was evacuating its 200 patients after the storm’s winds blew out the hospital’s windows, a spokeswoman said. Photos provided by the hospital also showed the storm had lifted off exterior panels and twisted metal framing.

“We have significant damage to the hospital,” hospital spokeswoman Tyra Palmer said, though the emergency room remains open.

Nearby, Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center was evacuating roughly 130 patients. and the hospital was relying on generators for power Thursday afternoon, said hospital spokesman Ed Fishbough. Patients were being transferred to other hospitals in the Gulf Coast area also owned by HCA Healthcare Inc., he said.

“Until we can be certain of stable public power, water and sewage systems, our patients will be safest in our neighboring hospitals,” he said.

The hospital’s emergency room remained open. A disaster-response team has been sent to help provide emergency care, Mr. Fishbough said. “We know our community will need our ER and we are going to do everything possible to keep our ER open and effectively treating and stabilizing patients.”

Air-ambulance teams were evacuating patients from damaged facilities, the Florida governor’s office said.

Bay Medical began evacuating its 200 patients around 3 a.m., as emergency responders arrived on roads cleared of debris by volunteers, said Ms. Palmer, the hospital spokeswoman. Helicopters started transferring patients at 7 a.m.

A helicopter tried to evacuate a woman pregnant with twins who walked to the hospital late Wednesday, Ms. Palmer said. But she was unable to fly and had to be taken off the helicopter after her condition deteriorated, she said. The woman was airlifted later in the morning.

Damage was widespread in Panama City, Fla. PHOTO: EMILY KASK/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Nearly 50 patients had been transferred mid-morning and evacuation was expected to continue through the day, Ms. Palmer said.

The storm left Bay Medical without water pressure and tore the roof off a storage building, forcing the hospital to bring in water, linen and food by helicopter Thursday, she said.

During the storm, staff transferred patients to more secure locations within the hospital as pounding rain entered through damaged roof and walls, Mr. Palmer said. “We have water in almost all parts” of the hospital, she said.

Seventy patients in Bay Medical’s general medical surgical unit had to be relocated during the storm.

Emerald Coast Behavioral Health, a Panama City psychiatric hospital, said in a statement it was assessing damage from the storm. The hospital lost power and had generators and “sufficient supplies,” the statement said. Patients remain at the hospital. “All patients and staff are safe within the facility,” the statement said.