Louisiana hospitals hit by storm evacuate dozens of patients

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana hospitals in the path of Hurricane Ida were forced to evacuate dozens of patients after the storm left them with pieces torn off their roofs, and water leaking down walls to pool on floors as they relied on emergency generators for electricity.

Ida smashed into the Louisiana coast as a devastating Category 4 hurricane Sunday at a time when most hospitals were nearly full with coronavirus patients. Hospitals that suffered the worst damage worked Monday to transfer patients to other medical centers in the state, while others kept operating on generator power.

At Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Lafourche Parish, near where Ida made landfall, the storm ripped away a significant portion of the roof. On Monday morning, members of the U.S. Coast Guard managed to fly in and evacuate about seven patients, Gov. John Bel Edwards said on a call with President Joe Biden and other governors.

Ochsner Health, which runs Louisiana’s largest hospital network and had about 15 hospitals in Ida’s path, evacuated 165 patients Monday from three hospitals from Houma and Raceland in the hard-hit bayou region, said Warner Thomas, Ochsner Health's president and CEO.

Despite the evacuations, those hospitals still had emergency rooms open Monday, he said. Other Ochsner Health facilities in New Orleans and elsewhere stayed fully open, even after water leaked inside after the storm blew off rooftop ventilation covers and broke a few windows. All were running on generators, and some used water from private wells.

“We know that we're in for several days, maybe a couple of weeks of this situation,” Warner Thomas told reporters in a video conference Monday.

Dr. Joseph Kanter, Louisiana's chief health officer, said Monday on Twitter that major hospitals seemed to...