Florida Hospitals and Nursing Homes Are Bracing for Hurricane Milton

Less than 2 weeks aft Hurricane Helene tore done the American Southeast, hospitals and wellness attraction providers successful Florida are preparing for yet different destructive tempest arsenic Hurricane Milton hurtles toward the state’s westbound coast.

Though downgraded to a Category 4 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center described the tempest arsenic “extremely dangerous” precocious Tuesday morning. As it makes landfall precocious Wednesday oregon aboriginal Thursday adjacent Tampa, Milton is predicted to bring precocious winds and tempest surges of 10 feet oregon higher to parts of Florida’s westbound seashore and dense rains passim astir of the peninsula.

As of Tuesday afternoon, much than 200 wellness attraction facilities successful impacted areas were reporting evacuations, including implicit 100 assisted surviving facilities and 10 hospitals. In mentation for the storm, the Florida Department of Health has deployed much than 600 ambulances and different exigency effect vehicles and has acceptable up 11 special-needs shelters for radical with disabilities.

“We genuinely are acrophobic astir the magnitude of this hurricane and the imaginable catastrophic impacts,” Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, tells WIRED. The enactment represents the state’s much than 300 hospitals. In Florida, which gets deed with much storms than immoderate different US state, hospitals person closed successful the past due to the fact that of upwind disasters, but Mayhew says what is antithetic this clip is the precocious fig of wellness attraction facilities that person evacuated up of Milton.

Affected hospitals are transferring patients to different facilities wrong their wellness attraction systems. Steve McCoy, Florida’s main of exigency aesculapian oversight, said during an emergency preparedness briefing connected Tuesday that astir 600 vehicles, including buses, ambulances, and vans, person been deployed to determination patients to safety. “This has been our largest evacuation ever,” helium said.

HCA Florida Healthcare, a web of hospitals and doc practices that operates crossed the state, said Tuesday day that it is temporarily closing oregon suspending services astatine respective hospitals and exigency rooms. “Once the diligent transfers are complete, the hospitals volition beryllium temporarily closed and volition reopen erstwhile it is harmless to bash truthful pursuing the storm,” the wellness attraction strategy said successful a statement.

Hospitals that stay unfastened person implemented flood-mitigation plans, moved electrical instrumentality distant from flood areas, and stocked supplies that whitethorn beryllium needed successful an emergency.

Tampa General Hospital, 1 of the largest hospitals successful Milton’s path, volition stay unfastened and has activated its hurricane-preparedness plan. The world wellness strategy is the region’s lone Level I Trauma Center and, in a connection issued connected Tuesday, said it is “ready to conscionable the needs of patients passim the authorities who necessitate attraction aft the tempest has passed.” Health attraction providers and unit who are trained successful exigency absorption volition stay on-site passim the tempest to attraction for patients. Additional providers and unit volition instrumentality to enactment arsenic soon arsenic the tempest passes and the roads are safe.

The hospital—which is sited connected the Davis Islands astatine oversea level and is protected by assorted systems including an AquaFence barrier—has an on-site cardinal vigor works located 33 feet supra oversea level that tin supply a powerfulness proviso successful the lawsuit of powerfulness disruption. According to Tampa General, the vigor works was built to withstand the interaction and flooding of a Category 5 hurricane. The infirmary says it has much than 5 days of supplies, including nutrient and linens, on-site.