More than 50 individuals were rescued after being stranded on the roof of a hospital in Tennessee on Friday, following rising floodwaters caused by Hurricane Helene. City official Michael Baker confirmed that all 54 people, including 11 patients, were safely evacuated by Friday evening.
Baker reported a steady flow of helicopters facilitating the rescues, with one helicopter stationed on the hospital roof and another ready to assist from nearby. The Unicoi County Hospital in Erwin, located about 100 miles east of Knoxville, had requested evacuation assistance around 9:30 a.m. local time, but rescue efforts were hampered by severe flooding and high winds.
The hospital, which is managed by Ballad Health, was engulfed by dangerously fast-moving water, making it impossible for ambulances and boats to reach the facility safely. A total of seven others were rescued from nearby boats, as the situation became increasingly critical.
In a post on social media, Ballad Health described the retrieval efforts as a perilous operation. Baker recounted the urgency of the situation, expressing the immediate need to evacuate as water levels rapidly rose.
Among those rescued was Angel Mitchell, who spent four hours on the roof while her ailing mother, who has pneumonia, was in a rescue boat nearby. As water flooded into the hospital, staff directed patients and visitors to the roof, where they huddled together for safety.
Mitchell shared her harrowing experience of climbing to the roof through chest-deep water, managing to communicate with her mother only by shouting. As they awaited rescue, they witnessed debris from nearby structures flowing by in the floodwaters.
As rescue teams arrived, helicopters transported the stranded individuals to a hospital 20 miles away from Unicoi County Hospital. By Friday afternoon, about 1.1 million people were under flash flood emergencies across multiple states, with heightened alerts indicating severe threats to human life due to the ongoing flooding.