A risky rescue operation is underway to evacuate over 50 people stranded by fast-moving flood waters on the roof of a hospital in Erwin, in eastern Tennessee, as the remnants of Hurricane Helene bring torrential rains to the state, hospital administrators and officials said Friday.
“The hospital has been engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water. The situation at the hospital is very dangerous and TEMA and National Guard resources are engaged in what can only be described as a dangerous rescue operation,” the hospital chain Ballad Health said in a statement.
Ballad Health received word Friday morning that Unicoi County Hospital needed to be evacuated immediately due to “unusually high and rising water” from the Nolichucky River in the eastern part of the state.
County officials deployed ambulances to evacuate 11 patients from the hospital, but the property flooded “so quickly the ambulances could not safely approach,” Ballad Health said. Boats were brought in to assist with the evacuation, but were unable to safely navigate the water around the hospital.
Ballad Health also said that high winds prevented helicopters from flying in to evacuate those stranded, but by 2:30 p.m., helicopters had arrived to conduct the operation, Rep. Diana Harshbarger said on X.
There are 54 people on the roof and seven people in rescue boats, Ballad Health said.
Hurricane Helene crashed ashore in Florida’s Big Bend area late Thursday night as a dangerous Category 4 storm. It has since been downgraded to a tropical depression. The storm has caused dozens of deaths in several states after inundating areas with what the National Hurricane Center described as historic and catastrophic flooding.