United States: Florida Gulf Coast area hospitals and other health care centers that were heavily hit by Hurricane Helene are getting ready for the new storm called Hurricane Milton.
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The system, which is quickly developing and looks to be one of the most formidable systems to impact the region in years, remains on course to move inland a bit south of the Tampa region sometime after midnight on late Wednesday.
Nursing homes in the counties where authorities have ordered people to evacuate are moving their patients, while most hospitals are more or less ready to weather the storm, AP News reported.
As stated on the website of Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, up to Tuesday afternoon, ten hospitals have said they had to evacuate
Moreover, some 300 healthcare facilities have been evacuated as of this morning, many of the staff working there could recall, according to Kim Smoak, the deputy secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration.
Said officials have nearly 600 vehicles transporting patients out of the path of the storm while wearing blue bands that indicate where they were moved from and to.
Their intent is to continue taking out as many patients as possible at night until the wind speed rises to 40 mph and driving conditions become unsafe.
Hospitals on alter after hurricane
Major supplies in custody include food, linens, and 5,000 gallons of water, apart from an in-house well and over five days of stock.
The hospital also has its energy plant with generators and boilers, which are situated 33 feet above sea level. Tampa General used an “aquafence” to successfully protect against storm-surge flooding during Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, AP News reported.
The barrier would be back again when Milton is on the shore and can survive fifteen feet of storm surge.
The US National Hurricane Centre has estimated that the heights of Milton’s surges to be between 10 and 15 feet at their maximum level.