Authorities on Friday successfully airlifted over 50 people stranded by fast-moving floodwaters from 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.
“All hospital personnel and patients have been rescued from Unicoi County Hospital. As of 4:40 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, no one remains at the facility,” hospital chain Ballad Health said in a statement.
Virginia State Police and the Tennessee National Guard conducted the rescue, Ballad Health said, and a spokesperson for VSP confirmed aviation units out of Abingdon had assisted with the rescue.
The Tennessee National Guard deployed three Blackhawk helicopters for the operation, a military spokesperson said in a statement, and the patients and staff members were taken to a local high school.
The “dangerous rescue operation” began earlier Friday after the hospital became “engulfed by extremely dangerous and rapidly moving water” from the Nolichucky River, Ballad Health said.
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 the helicopters from flying in to evacuate those stranded, but by 2:30 p.m., the helicopters had arrived to conduct the operation, Rep. Diana Harshbarger said on X.
There were 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.