NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As floodwaters from Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded a small Tennessee hospital near a river bank, workers first tried to get patients out by ambulance . Then the road was washed away.
They attempted to move people to the center of the building, but they were met with water.
Once the rescue boats arrived, the water was so dangerous that they could not leave. Eventually, dozens of staff and patients went to the roof to wait to be brought to safety, and a few others remained in rescue boats, as winds howled and brown waters gushed nearby with debris under them.
Within hours, they were all rescued.
The dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border, is one of many that played out across the southern United States in the wake of Hélène. Flooding from storm surge and rain sent thousands of police, firefighters, National Guard members and others on rescue missions. Hundreds of people were rescued, but at least 40 died.
“It was just the grace of God that we had enough people to move people up to the roof,” said Tennessee Hospital Administrator Jennifer Harrah. told WJHL-TV. “And we were able to put the non-ambulatory patients in the boats and keep them safe and also have medical personnel with the patients in the boats. And we sort of put them in a corner, protected by a few walls.
Unicoi County Hospital attempted to evacuate 11 patients and 43 others Friday morning after the Nolichucky River overflowed its banks and flooded the facility, but the water was too dangerous for boats sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
The decision was made to direct more than 50 people to the roof. Seven other people were temporarily stranded in lifeboats. Ballad Health, which operates the small 10-bed hospital, asked for people’s prayers by providing an update on social media.
After other helicopters failed to reach the hospital due to the storm’s winds, a Virginia State Police helicopter was able to land on the roof. Three National Guard helicopters with lifting capabilities were dispatched, officials said.
In a later post, Ballad Health said all staff and patients were rescued about four hours after dozens of them were moved to the hospital roof. The patients were transferred to another facility and no one remained in the hospital.
“The water just rose there faster with more debris than could be safely transported in the rafts to transport them from a dry spot to the hospital,” said Patrick Sheehan, director of Tennessee Emergency Operations.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search and rescue personnel will be focused on securing and stabilizing affected communities throughout the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, director of emergency operations. of the state. The Category 4 storm made landfall on Florida’s northwest coast Thursday evening, but it brought storm surge flooding along the state’s Gulf Coast.
“As these kinds of rescue missions are taking place today and continuing, please do not go out and visit the affected areas,” Guthrie said at a news conference Friday in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital. “I beg you, don’t get in their way.”
Reported rescues ranged from life-threatening situations to people trapped in their homes by waist-deep water and unable to escape on their own.
Five people died in Pinellas County and dozens more were rescued after the storm surge reached an unprecedented height of 8 feet, forcing some to seek shelter in their attics. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the deaths all occurred in neighborhoods where authorities asked residents to evacuate, but many ignored the warnings.
He said survivors told deputies they didn’t believe the warnings after other residents told them the surge wouldn’t be that bad.
“We made our case. We told people what they should do and they chose differently,” Gualtieri said.
Gualtieri said his deputies tried overnight to reach those who were stuck, but in some neighborhoods it simply wasn’t safe. Pinellas County includes St. Petersburg.
“I was there personally. We tried to launch boats, we tried to use high water vehicles and we encountered too many obstacles,” Gualtieri said. He added that the death toll could rise as emergency teams go door to door in flooded areas to see if anyone is left.
In neighboring Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, the sheriff’s office rescued more than 300 people overnight following a storm surge. Spokeswoman Amanda Granit said they included a 97-year-old woman with dementia and her 63-year-old daughter, who were surprised by the wave and needed help to flee their home flooded; and a 19-year-old woman whose car got stuck while driving through rising waters and was unable to get out.
Granit said deputies were performing rescues in such large numbers that they had to request county transit buses to get people to safety.
“The deputies couldn’t get them into their patrol vehicles fast enough,” Granit said.
In the Tampa Bay area city of South Pasadena, rescue video shows a house on fire early Friday amid flooded streets. Other Gulf counties reported more than 100 rescues.
When water from the storm surge reached Kera O’Neil’s knees in her Hudson home, 45 miles north of Tampa, she knew she and her sister had to flee with her two cats.
“There comes a point where you say that if this water rises above the level of the stove, we won’t have much space to breathe,” she said.
O’Neil and her sister waded through chest-deep water with one cat in a plastic bag and another in a cardboard box. They found shelter on a neighbor’s higher property before Pasco County firefighters, aboard a raft, rescued them and three others.
“I’m a Florida girl and we’ve been here since we were kids,” she said. “We’ve never experienced anything like this.”
At sea, the Coast Guard said it rescued three boaters and their pets from the storm in separate incidents. In a helicopter rescue Thursday captured on Coast Guard video, a man and his Irish setter found themselves stranded 25 miles offshore in the Gulf on their 36-foot sailboat in rough seas.
The video shows the man putting his dog in a yellow life jacket and pushing it into the raging sea before jumping in. A Coast Guard swimmer helped them into an escape pod and they were lifted into the helicopter.
In North Carolina, more than 100 swift water rescues took place as rains from Helene caused massive flooding Friday, particularly in the western part of the state. Gov. Roy Cooper said flash flooding threatens lives and creates numerous landslides.
“The priority now is saving lives,” Cooper said, pleading with people to stay off the roads unless they seek higher ground.
“With the rain they had already experienced before Helen arrived, this is one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of western North Carolina,” Cooper said.
In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp said crews were working to rescue people trapped in more than 115 homes.
Helen’s rains flooded homes in Hanover West, a neighborhood in northern Atlanta. Emergency personnel rescued several people from their homes, said Richard Simms, a resident of a nearby neighborhood.
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Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press journalist Béatrice Dupuy contributed to this report.
