Flooding Forces Evacuation Of 116 Patients From Brooklyn Hospital

BED-STUY, NY — Some 116 patients were evacuated and transferred from Woodhull Hospital over the weekend after flooding caused electrical damage and a fix could be days away, authorities said.

Flooding wreaked havoc across Brooklyn Friday — and by 10 p.m., Health and Hospitals officials had started evacuating critical patients, according to Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol.

By Sunday, all 116 Woodhull patients had been transferred to other hospitals — including five intensive care unit and 12 laboring patients, authorities said.

Woodhull also began diverting emergency patients to other facilities as they had to shut off all power to begin repairs.

Authorities expected the hospital would return to normal operations after at least several days.

"The health system has begun its assessment of the hospital’s engineering and electrical systems to understand the extent of any damage caused. It is estimated that the repairs could take a minimum of several days before the hospital can resume operations," a representative said.

At least one person showed up to Woodhull looking for his daughter Saturday despite authorities' promise that families had been properly notified, Gothamist reported.

Patients were transferred first to nearby facilities Bellevue and South Brooklyn Health, then to farther facilities like Queens, Metropolitan, North Central Bronx and Jacobi, said Eric Wei, Senior Vice President of Health and Hospitals.

Vehicles purchased after Hurricane Sandy were used to evacuate patients, Iscol said.

"We have large vehicles that were purchased after Sandy to help with the evacuation of large numbers of folks from hospital systems," Iscol said.

There were no significant injuries or deaths as a result of the damages to Woodhull, Mayor Eric Adams said on Saturday.

"And so the rain is gone. The cleanup is now upon us, and we're going to continue to make sure that the city gets back to functioning and operating," Adams said Saturday.