The hospital had a generator that kicked in at the time of the power outage, but lacking water, it began the process of evacuating its NICU patients.
"We started to hear that they were going to evacuate due to infrastructure issues and that is the point where we started thinking, okay, this is real. They're really going to need those patients out," said Caitlin Beck Stella, CEO of Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital."As soon as the hospital said, 'It's time to evacuate. It's unsafe,' everyone just jumped into motion.
"Every single case is unique," said Beck Stella."Some of them are singletons. Some of them are multiples, so you have to think of how do you keep families together. You can't send one twin to Tampa and one twin to Joe DiMaggio." In total, 61 NICU patients were transferred from Golisano Children’s Hospital to hospitals in other parts of the state, a hospital spokesperson told ABC News.
PHOTO: Jennifer Morales's newborn daughter Allison was transferred to the NICU at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, after Hurricane Ian. PHOTO: Jennifer Morales's newborn daughter Allison was transferred to the NICU at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, after Hurricane Ian.