Unicoi County Hospital Floods: Dozens Rescued From Tennessee Hospital Roof During Helene Flooding

CNN
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More than 50 people were rescued after being stranded on the roof of a Tennessee hospital Friday — some for hours — due to rising floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene, according to a city official.

The dozens of people trapped atop Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, Tennessee, were all brought to safety Friday evening, Erwin City Councilman Michael Baker told CNN.

“We had a steady stream of helicopters picking them up and dropping them off around the city in safe locations,” Baker said earlier Friday. “There’s a helicopter over the hospital, and we have another one, flying over nearby to start getting everyone down on the carousel, but it’s a team effort.”

Ballad Health, which runs Unicoi, was informed that the hospital had to be evacuated around 9:30 a.m. local time on Friday, the healthcare organization said in a post on X. But due to flooding and high winds caused by the deadly storm, ambulances and helicopters were needed. was unable to reach the building safely.

Erwin, about 100 miles east of Knoxville, is located in the southern Appalachians near Tennessee’s border with North Carolina.

A total of 54 people were moved to the roof and seven others placed in rescue boats, Ballad Health said in a statement Friday. The hospital system said the count included 11 patients.

The Unicoi County Hospital was “engulfed by extremely dangerous and fast-moving water,” the statement on X said. Due to the speed with which the water was rising around and inside the hospital , the rescue boats were also unable to evacuate people safely.

Ballad Health called on the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency and National Guard efforts to get people to safety “a dangerous rescue operation.”

“The water came up so fast that I literally looked at the owner and said, ‘We need to get out of here,'” Baker said.

Unicoi County Hospital is a 10-bed, nonprofit hospital, according to its website.

At least 45 people were killed in five states during the storm, which caused flash flooding in the Southeast after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. left millions of customers without power, destroyed homes and caused road closures.

Angel Mitchell was among dozens of people stuck on the roof for four hours Friday while her 83-year-old mother, whom she was visiting, sat nearby in a rescue boat, she told CNN. Mitchell says they were quickly evacuated from a hospital room when water started entering the building.

Mitchell said the power was cut off and hospital staff began directing patients and visitors to the roof for safety, collecting whatever essential supplies they could.

His mother, suffering from pneumonia, was placed in a lifeboat. During this time, Mitchell says she was directed outside where she waded through chest-deep waters around the building to climb a ladder to the roof, sometimes having to grab hold of the building to avoid falling. be carried away.

“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Mitchell told CNN through tears.

While Mitchell was on the roof, she saw her mother – with her oxygen tank – in one of the lifeboats. “That’s what tore me up the most: looking down and seeing her,” Mitchell said. She could only communicate with her mother by shouting loudly to her.

As they waited for rescue, floodwaters rushed in and Mitchell saw what she thought were parts of dislodged houses and barns floating next to them, she said. Video from the scene shows floodwaters surrounding and nearly covering vehicles, including at least one ambulance.

“We all tried to stay calm, but it was extremely difficult,” Mitchell said.

A group of patients, nurses and doctors gathered and prayed while waiting to be saved. Mitchell says by the time rescue crews arrived, the water was about 10 feet below the roof line.

Helicopters transported the stranded people to a hospital 20 miles north of Unicoi County Hospital.

As of Friday afternoon, about 1.1 million people were facing at least 14 different flash flood emergencies, the highest level of flash flood warning issued by the National Weather Service, reserved for catastrophic flooding that present a serious threat to human life.