Rooftop Unicoi County hospital rescues prompt change in policy from CEO
Shelly Burgess had a harrowing Friday; her parents and 90-year-old grandmother were three of 54 people who were stranded on the hospital’s roof, having to be rescued by helicopter.
ERWIN, Tenn. (WVLT) - The impactful story of three people trapped Friday on the roof of Unicoi County Hospital — a story shared by more than 50 others — is prompting change from the hospital’s owners.
Shelly Burgess had a harrowing Friday; her parents and 90-year-old grandmother were three of 54 people who were stranded on the hospital’s roof, having to be rescued by helicopter.
Previous Coverage: Responders rescue dozens from East Tennessee hospital roof after flooding traps them
“Where the hospital is, has become ground zero,” she said. “It’s hard to explain. It is one of those things, you pray, pray harder than you normally would.”
Ballad Health owns Unicoi County Hospital. The group, along with Tennessee first responders, outlined how the rescue happened, an operation that lasted hours as waters rose Friday afternoon.
Ballad Health’s CEO Alan Levine said the hospital had an evacuation plan in place Thursday, but people weren’t actually evacuated until Friday morning. By that time, getting to the hospital on ground was impossible.
“We began evacuating as soon as we received the order from the local emergency management agency,” Levine said. “That is typically how that works.”
The hospital higher-up also said that plan, waiting for the official word to order evacuations, isn’t in place any more.
“If we see that an event is approaching where five to ten inches is being predicted, then the answer is yeah, we are not going to wait in the future for an order,” Levine said.
Levine also talked about the future of the hospital. It’s in a flood zone, but he said it was built at a higher elevation for just that reason.
“It was built at the same level as the interstate,” Levine said, referring to a now wiped-out I-26. “The reason we did that is because the interstates are generally built to avoid being flooded.”
For Burgess, she’s just thankful everyone made it off the hospital alive.
“Just the not knowing, whether it was good, bad or indifferent,” she said, remembering when her parents lost cell phone service that day. “Praise god they are all good; God is good.”
Ballad Health has said it will share updates on the hospital’s status in the future.
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