More than 100 patients were evacuated as Brooklyn’s Woodhull Hospital was shut down Saturday amid problems with electrical systems caused by torrential rain, officials said.
Some 120 patients were to be moved from the hospital in ambulances, FDNY transport vehicles, and NYC Emergency Management vehicles to other hospitals in the city-owned Health + Hospitals system, the hospital said in a statement.
Seventeen critical patients, including five intensive care unit patients, were transferred Friday out of precaution, officials said.
By Saturday afternoon, about 50 patients were still awaiting transfers, Mayor Adams said at a news conference at the hospital. Adams said that the transfers would not cause a “disruption in the care” patients receive.
Hospital officials said electrical repairs could take several days.
The hospital’s statement said the electrical problems were rooted in a “neighborhood power failure.”
When the power failed Friday afternoon, the hospital in Bedford-Stuyvesant switched to emergency back-up power.
Con Edison crews restored the hospital’s power Saturday and the facility was running on its own equipment, a utility spokeswoman said Saturday evening.
But Con Edison and city hospital officials said the shutdown was necessary because more repairs are needed to Woodhull’s own equipment.
“Con Edison has completed their portion, which allows us to look in house at what the damage from the flooding caused to our electrical system,” said Eric Wei, a Health + Hospitals senior vice president.
Wei said it was “too early to say” when patients could return.
“We need to preparing for events like the one that happened yesterday to make sure that hospitals that care for so many of our constituents do not close and put a strain on the entire hospital system,” said local City Councilman Chi Ossé (D-Brooklyn).
“I think preparing for the worst is where we need to go from here on out. I hope more capital budgets in the future receive deeper investment in climate infrastructure for many of our public institutions rather than maybe some other things.”
