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A risky rescue operation is underway to evacuate more than 50 people stranded by fast-moving water on the roof of a hospital in Erwin, eastern Tennessee. Hurricane Helene bringing torrential rain to the state, hospital administrators and officials said Friday.
“The hospital has been flooded by extremely dangerous and fast-moving water. The situation at the hospital is very dangerous and the resources of TEMA and the National Guard are involved in what can only be described as a dangerous rescue operation,” hospital chain Ballad Health said in a statement. a statement.
Ballad Health received notice Friday morning that Unicoi County Hospital needed to be evacuated immediately due to “unusually high and rising waters” from the Nolichucky River in the eastern part of the state.
County officials deployed ambulances to evacuate 11 patients from the hospital, but the facility flooded “so quickly that the ambulances could not approach safely,” Ballad Health said. Boats were deployed to assist with the evacuation, but were unable to safely navigate the water around the hospital.
Ballad Health also said high winds prevented helicopters from flying in to evacuate the stranded people, but by 2:30 p.m. helicopters had arrived to conduct the operation, representative Diana Harshbarger said on X.
There are 54 people on the roof and seven people in lifeboats, Ballad Health said.
Hurricane Helene crashed into Florida’s Big Bend area late Thursday night as a dangerous Category 4 storm. It has since been downgraded to a tropical depression. The storm caused dozens of deaths in several states after flooding areas in what the National Hurricane Center described as historic and catastrophic flooding.
