‘We lucked out.’ MS Coast hospitals come away generally unscathed from Hurricane Ida
Two of the Gulf Coast’s largest health systems reported no patient admissions because of Hurricane Ida, with few interruptions to patient care and very little facility damage throughout the storm at a time when COVID-19 patients are overwhelming their facilities.
As the Category 4 storm’s remnants swept through Monday afternoon, Singing River Health System had recorded no interruptions to patient care and no admissions to their hospitals yet due to the storm, with just minor leaks to their facilities’ windows.
Memorial Hospital reported only one patient move during the storm because of leaking windows and ceiling tiles. Across their facilities throughout South Mississippi, Chief Administrative Officer April LaFontaine said Memorial saw some more window and roof leaks, a few broken windows and some doors blown in with minimal impact to patient care areas.
Across Mississippi, five facilities are on a mixture of electric grid and generators and six reporting minor damage, said Jim Craig, director of health protection with the Mississippi State Department of Health during a Monday evening press conference.
“Which is pretty phenomenal when you think about the size of such a storm,” LaFontaine said. “[Staff] were tirelessly working before, with COVID, and they’re tirelessly working through the storm and they’re here and they’re staying and they’re ready to care for our community. They’re pretty resilient… We lucked out. We really did. I feel sorry for our friends to the west.”
Save for intense storm surges and flash flooding, the Mississippi Coast avoided the worst of Ida. In neighboring Louisiana, health systems are reporting five hospitals have been or are being evacuated as of 2 p.m. Monday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health told WWNO.
One of Louisiana’s largest hospital systems, Ochsner Health, needed to evacuate about 65 patients in two facilities after experiencing flooding, roof damage and generator failures, according to a WDSU report. An Ochsner partner facility in Houma asked for help evacuating 100 patients.
During a meeting streamed Monday morning between President Joe Biden and governors and mayors from states and cities impacted by Hurricane Ida, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said flooding was the largest concern for the state, which was not hit as bad as its western neighbor.
Mississippi has determined that the search and rescue teams from FEMA are not needed in the state, encouraging those teams go to Louisiana instead, according to Reeves, who said he’s also sending men and women in uniform to Mississippi to Louisiana in order to aid with damage.
“As the rain continues in East Jackson County, we are seeing more flash flooding but other than that we have been very fortunate thus far,” Singing River spokesperson Sarah Duffey said. “No damage to report thankfully. Minor leaks on windows but nothing really to report.”
Memorial’s doors never closed throughout Ida, though a tree was briefly blocking one facility entrance last night. At Singing River’s Pascagoula Hospital, there is some flooding near the entrance and by the medical park.
Patient Care during the storm
Curfews across the Coast during Ida made it so that Sunday was one of the “slowest days in the ER” that the Singing River has had over the past six weeks, according to Duffey — a change of pace from the influx of COVID-19 patients overwhelming Coastal health systems and clogging emergency rooms.
At Memorial, limited travel during the storm caused a slowdown during most of the sustained winds and surges. “Very few” patients attempted to come into Memorial during the weather. Their facilities were busy late Monday, however, once storm had subsided.
“The emergency room is busy today, we have 88 patients that are still in our facility,” LaFontaine said. “We were full before the storm, we’re full after the storm, and so obviously people are still here seeking the care that they need — we have well over 230 patients in our facility today. And our emergency room is busy, so that number will likely grow this morning.”
Both Singing River and Memorial’s facilities kept generators on during the storm so that patient care could remain continuous. Neither health system ever lost power.
At Singing River, there were no interruptions to patient care. Generators were on and switched over when “power blinked a few times at all three hospital locations.”
COVID patients on ventilators at Memorial were able to access the same care they’ve always received, LaFontaine said.
“We cared for the COVID patients during the storm just like we would any other day we were caring for COVID patients,” she said.
Some COVID testing, vaccine sites closed
Singing River’s Ocean Springs, Vancleave, Pascagoula and Hurley Medical Clinics are open, with coronavirus vaccination centers and drive-thru testing sites in Pascagoula and Ocean Springs resuming tomorrow. The health system’s Gulfport mobile site will reopen on Wednesday.
All Memorial COVID-19 testing locations and clinics are closed on Monday and will reopen Tuesday, including their largest drive-in testing sites, Gulfport and D’Iberville.
“We just want to tell people, during the cleanup, obviously today, we want people to be safe and keep the roads clear for all of those emergency power trucks that are coming in, trying to restore power and get the debris off the road and keep the emergency rooms empty for emergencies,” LaFontaine said.
“But we will definitely begin opening all of our clinics tomorrow, all of our testing and vaccine sites will be open tomorrow, and then of course, we’ll start getting our monoclonal antibody infusion suites back up and running on Wednesday, after we get test results coming from patients through those sites tomorrow.”
All Mississippi State Department of Health COVID vaccinations and testing sites are also closed on Monday, including MSDH offices, county health departments and WIC centers.
Ochsner and Merit Health systems across the Coast did not respond to the Sun Herald’s request for comment for this story.
This article is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 5:19 PM.
