A partial power outage amid the record rainfall of Hilary at Los Angeles’ White Memorial Hospital led to the evacuation of at least 28 “critical” patients and left nearly 250 patients in the dark, fire officials said.
The outage was reported just after 11 p.m. Monday night at the hospital’s Specialty Care Center at its Boyle Heights campus. The tower houses a neonatal intensive care unit, obstetrics, gynecology, and rehabilitation departments, Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Cody Weireter said to reporters overnight.
A total of 241 patients were affected by the outage, 28 of whom were deemed “critical” and transported by ambulance to nearby hospitals, LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said in a news briefing Tuesday morning.
The remaining 213 noncritical patients were going to be moved to another building that had power.
In a news release, the fire department said: “Firefights are bringing them down to the ground floor, assisting ventilations as required, for transport.”
Weireter said one of the issues in responding to the partial hospital blackout was no light, meaning “zero visibility,” and no working elevators. Firefighter paramedics had to assist patients down stairwells into receiving ambulances.
Officials said Tuesday morning all the critical patients were moved to other hospitals and evacuations of noncritical patients are still underway.
John Raffoul, the President of Adventist Health White Memorial, said the main power to the hospital went out on Monday around 3 a.m. local time at the height of Tropical Storm Hilary’s downpour. The historic storm hit Southern California with record rainfall.
Emergency generators immediately kicked into gear, but failed at around 1 a.m. local time Tuesday, Raffoul said.
A baby was born after the emergency generator went out, hospital spokesperson Grace Hauser told reporters. Doctors and hospital personnel flashed a cluster of flashlights towards the ceiling to illuminate the room during the delivery. The baby and mother were ultimately transported by ambulance to another hospital for care.
An investigation is underway into the cause of the outage and a new emergency generator is en route to the hospital, estimated to arrive at 9 a.m. local time.
Overnight Tuesday, at least 2,500 customers were without power in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us. As of 5:30 a.m. local time (8:30 a.m. EST), about 1,500 were without power.