Staten Island University Hospital begins evacuation

New York City’s mayor declared a state of emergency and ordered Staten Island University Hospital to begin an evacuation of patients ahead of Hurricane Irene.

August 26, 2011, Staten Island Advance -- (New York) Staten Island University Hospital begins evacuation amid hurricane emergency.

New York City’s mayor declared a state of emergency and ordered Staten Island University Hospital, Coney Island Hospital, and the other three hospitals in the city’s low-lying “Zone A” coastal areas to begin an “unprecedented” evacuation of patients August 25 ahead of powerful Hurricane Irene as part of the city’s storm preparedness, which will include shutting down the entire transit system for part of the weekend.

A major concern for the hospitals is the prospect of power outages, which had deadly consequences for New Orleans in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. The president and CEO of Staten Island University Hospital said the evacuation began with newborns in the neonatal unit being painstakingly transported, one by one, to Cohen Children’s Hospital in Long Island.

Patients at the Ocean Breeze and Prince’s Bay campuses will be discharged, where feasible, or removed to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton. Patients also will be sent to Long Island nursing homes and other hospitals in the North Shore-LIJ system, which includes hospitals in Manhasset, Plainview, Syosset, and Huntington on Long Island. Staten Island University Hospital and the other hospitals are required to complete the evacuation by 8 p.m. August 26, absent special exemption by the city Health Department.

Link: http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/staten_island_hospital_begins.html

Source: DHS Daily Open Source Infrastructure Report 29 August 2011