NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Patients and their caregivers sought shelter Friday on a Tennessee hospital's roof after flooding caused by Hurricane Helene drove them from the building's interior and conditions made rescue efforts difficult.
The dramatic scene at Unicoi County Hospital near the North Carolina border was one of several that played out across the southern U.S. in Helene's wake, as 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 40 died.
Unicoi County Hospital tried to evacuate 11 patients and 43 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 the roof. Three National Guard helicopters with hoist capabilities were sent, officials said.
In a later post, Ballad Health said all of the staff and patients had been rescued about 4 hours after dozens of them were moved to the hospital's roof. Patients were transferred to a different facility and no one remained at the hospital.
"The water there simply came up faster with more debris than was safe to operate in the rafts to ferry from a dry point back to the hospital," said Patrick Sheehan, Tennessee's emergency operations director.
Meanwhile in Florida, the efforts of 1,500 search-and-rescue personnel will be concentrated on securing and stabilizing affected communities through the weekend, said Kevin Guthrie, the state's emergency operations director. The Category 4 storm made landfall on the northwest Florida coast late Thursday, but it created flooding from storm surge all along the state's Gulf Coast.
"As those sorts of rescue missions happen today, and continue, please do not go out and visit the impacted areas," Guthrie said at a Friday news conference in the Florida capital of Tallahassee. "I beg of you, do not get in their way."
The reported rescues ranged from life-threatening situations to people trapped in their homes by waist-high water and unable to flee on their own.