Rescue missions after Helenes flooding include dozens stranded on Tennessee hospital roof

As floodwaters from Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded a small Tennessee hospital near a riverbank, workers first tried to get patients out by ambulance.Then, the road washed out.They tried to move people to the center of the low-slung building, but they were met by water.Once rescue boats arrived, the water was so dangerous they couldn’t leave.Ultimately, dozens of staff and patients went to the roof to wait to be taken to safety, and a few others stayed in rescue boats, as winds whipped and brown waters gushed nearby with debris beneath them.Within a few hours, they were all rescued.The dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital, in Erwin, Tennessee, near the North Carolina border, was one of several that played out across the southern US in Helene’s wake.Flooding caused by its storm surge and rain sent thousands of police officers, firefighters, National Guard members and others on rescue missions.

Hundreds were saved, but at least 44 died.“It was just the grace of God we had ample amount of people to move people up to the roof,” Jennifer Harrah, the Tennessee hospital’s administrator, told WJHL-TV.“And we were able to put the non-ambulatory patients in the boats and keep them safe and have medical personnel with the patients in the boats as well.

And we kind of had them in a corner, protected by a couple of walls.”Unicoi County Hospital tried to evacuate 11 patients and dozens of others Friday morning after the Nolichucky River overflowed its banks and flooded the facility, but the water was too treacherous for boats sent by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.The decision was made to direct more than 50 people to the roof.Another seven had been temporarily stuck in rescue boats.

Ballad Health, which operates the small 10-bed hospital, asked for people’s prayers as it provided the social media update.After other helicopters failed to reach the hospital because of the storm’s winds, a Virginia State Police helicopter was able to land on...