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By JULIE MINDA

Ministry facilities in Florida communities impacted by Hurricane Irma now are in recovery mode, repairing damage to their campuses and offering financial and emotional aid to employees whose homes were damaged by wind or water.

The St. Johns River lashes St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside in Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 11 during Hurricane Irma's storm surge.

Irma had wreaked havoc on some Caribbean islands before hitting the Florida Keys Sept. 10 as a Category 4 storm with wind speeds of 130 miles per hour. It traveled up the western coast of Florida with hurricane-force winds before weakening into a tropical storm Sept. 11 in northern Florida and continually losing force while moving northwest and inland.

In the days prior to the storm's U.S. landfall, meteorologists, media outlets and government leaders had issued dire warnings about catastrophic wind speeds, massive storm surges and the potential for widespread destruction. Early on, the storm's predicted path put much of the state in danger, and local authorities had about 6.5 million people in Florida under mandatory or voluntary evacuation.

While Irma did not exact the level of destruction that had been predicted, it caused widespread damage in the Florida Keys, and pockets of damage in numerous communities along or near the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. According to news sources, Irma caused at least 34 deaths in the U.S.; it triggered power outages for at least 5.4 million people in the southeast U.S.; and it may have caused up to $65 billion in property damage in the U.S., including for homes and businesses destroyed by flooding or wind.

Staff at Bon Secours Maria Manor nursing home in St. Petersburg, Fla., evacuate patients in advance of Hurricane Irma. Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System said 310 residents of the nursing facility and the adjacent Bon Secours Place assisted living facility spent five days at the St. Jude the Apostle Cathedral and school while waiting out the storm. Bon Secours moved all the residents' mattresses to the temporary quarters, and about 150 staff stayed at St. Jude with the patients and residents.

About a dozen ministry hospitals and numerous other ministry sites operate in Florida. All those hospitals remained operational throughout the storm. Some sustained minor damage — with flooding causing most of that damage; some had to evacuate patients; and some tackled minor power issues that did not affect patient care.

Late September found all ministry facilities fully operational and working to aid employees and community members harmed by flooding, wind damage, power outages, food shortages and other residual effects.

Gearing up
As Irma gained strength over the Atlantic Ocean early last month, Catholic health care providers throughout Florida executed emergency preparedness plans and brought in extra supplies including food, water and medications. They prepared for the possibility of evacuation, battened down their buildings and closely monitored hurricane path projections. Many closed outpatient sites and rescheduled elective procedures.

Ministry providers throughout Florida swung into storm mode. Among them were:

• Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, a Trinity Health facility. The hospital and some of its off-campus facilities sustained wind and water damage, which has been repaired.
• Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System, a nursing home, assisted living facility and home care agency on the central Gulf Coast, which evacuated all residents for several days, keeping them safe and comfortable.
• Six Trinity Health hospitals in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. Some of the facilities had minor water damage.
• Ascension's Sacred Heart Health System, a three-hospital system in Pensacola, near the Alabama border. This system prepared for but was not impacted by the storm.
• St. Vincent's HealthCare of Jacksonville, a three-hospital system in the state's northeast corner that is part of Ascension. St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside and St. Vincent's Medical Center Southside had minor water and wind damage, St. Vincent's Riverside had some facade damage.

St. Vincent's HealthCare of Jacksonville was among ministry facilities that sheltered staff members' families and pets. Relieved of worry over loved ones' safety, employees could concentrate on their jobs during Hurricane Irma.

 

High waters
Located on the St. Johns River in northeast Florida's Jacksonville, St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside was vulnerable to flooding from the rising river during Irma's storm surge. In preparation for Irma-related flooding, the city of Jacksonville had delivered seven truckloads of sand to the facility. Hospital and city staff and some community members packed 3,800 sandbags to successfully protect the hospital's power plant.

St. Vincent's Riverside transferred 18 patients before the surge's high tide — most of them critical patients on ventilators or neonatal intensive care unit babies — to its two other local hospitals as a precaution. When Irma hit, St. Vincent's Riverside had about 280 patients; St. Vincent's Southside, about 140; and St. Vincent's Clay County, about 50.

Higher ground
Bon Secours St. Petersburg includes the 274-bed Maria Manor nursing home and memory care unit; the 102-unit Bon Secours Place assisted living facility; and home care services. Since the manor and assisted living unit are in the flood zone of Tampa Bay, Pinellas County's emergency operations center ordered both facilities to evacuate. Three days prior to Irma's landfall, Bon Secours transported 310 residents to higher ground at St. Petersburg's St. Jude the Apostle Cathedral and school.

Staff used handicapped-accessible buses to move the residents, many of whom are frail elderly and in wheelchairs. Using four rented trucks, Bon Secours moved medical supplies, food, water and equipment, plus all of the residents' mattresses to the new location.

For five days, approximately 150 staff members representing every department at the continuum-of-care facility lived with the residents at St. Jude.

During the duration of the evacuation, residents slept on the mattresses on the floor, with bedsheets strung up between them when privacy was needed.

Karen Reich, chief executive of Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System, says certified nurse assistants and nurses tended patients, often doing so on their hands and knees.

She says staff "tried to keep our residents occupied and maintain at least some of our usual routine." St. Petersburg Bishop Gregory Parkes visited evacuees during the storm, two priests celebrated Mass, evacuees who are part of Maria Manor's choir sang and the seniors passed the time with bingo games.

A baker at St. Vincent's Medical Center Riverside, Jacksonville, Fla., slept in a tent inside the hospital to be available for dietary department shifts.

Reich says residents remained upbeat and cheerful throughout the relocation. All returned safely to a fully operational — and undamaged — facility Sept. 12. Residents wrote a thank you letter to staff for keeping them safe. (Read that letter here.)

Patient influx
Some of Trinity Health's six Tampa-St. Petersburg-area hospitals saw a busy lead-up to the storm as other local facilities closed and evacuated. The Trinity facilities worked closely with physicians to discharge as many patients as they safely could, to free up beds for the newcomers. Many of the new arrivals were patients needing access to uninterrupted electricity or oxygen.

Prior to the storm, St. Joseph's Women's Hospital took in five neonatal intensive care unit babies from a hospital that was under flooding threat.

According to information from the Trinity hospitals, it was a challenge to discharge medically cleared inpatients and ER patients in the storm's wake, to make room for new arrivals. The patients weren't certain what they would be going home to. But, hospital staff accommodated patients in lobbies and waiting areas until they could return home. Staff also ensured discharged patients had three days-worth of medication.

Pre-storm surge
Prior to the storm, Trinity's Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic Coast had staffed up in anticipation of long working hours while riding out the storm. The 557-bed hospital released patients who physicians said were medically cleared, and who could safely return home. The hospital had 250 inpatients when Irma hit.

After the storm, Holy Cross experienced a significant spike in emergency department visits, including by patients with lacerations, heat-related conditions, and by those seeking dialysis and supplemental oxygen. Holy Cross President and Chief Executive Dr. Patrick Taylor noted the hospital was unable to discharge numerous patients immediately after the storm because nursing homes, assisted living facilities and individual homes had no electricity.