Part of the fourth floor roof from the intensive care unit at HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte was blown off, Dr. Birgit Bodine, who works there, told theAssociated Press. A lower level emergency room also experienced storm surge flooding.
“We didn’t anticipate that the roof would blow off,” Bodine, who spent the night at the hospital on what she anticipated would be a busy night, told the news agency.
“Hard to believe,” wrote reporter Josh Chapin.
Bodine told the AP that after water began coming down in the ICU, hospital staff had to evacuate some of the hospital’s sickest patients to other floors — and that due to damage at the hospital, only two of the hospital’s four floors were available for patients.
“The ambulances may be coming soon and we don’t know where to put them in the hospital at this point,” she told the outlet. “We’re doubled and tripled up.”
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On Wednesday, the hospital announced that due to the arrival of the storm they would only be open for emergencies.
“HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital is currently open for serving patients in our facility right now and emergency patients only,” theywroteon Facebook. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Ianmade landfallnear Cayo Costa, Florida, as a catastrophic Category 4 storm, with its 150 mph winds snapping apart trees, ripping homes to shreds and tearing down power lines across the coastline.
Damage in Fort Myers after Hurricane Ian passed through.Joe Raedle/Getty
On Thursday, President Joe Biden officially declared the state of Florida a major disaster zone, sending federal aid to residents in Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Pinellas and Sarasota counties.
Although the full impact of the storm remains unknown, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno toldGood Morning Americaon Thursday that “while I don’t have confirmed numbers, I definitely knowfatalities are in the hundreds.”
“I can’t give a true assessment until we’re actually on scene assessing each scene. And we can’t access, that’s the problem,” Marceno continued. “We’re accessing the bridges, seeing what’s compromised and what’s not. And this will be a life-changing event for the men and women who are responding. They’re going to see things they’ve never seen before.”
source: people.com
