Florida hospitals, health care facilities in Hurricane Milton's path prepare for worst

Florida healthcare facilities prepare for Hurricane Milton, evacuating patients and stocking up on supplies to weather the storm.

Hospitals and other healthcare facilities on Florida's Gulf Coast — still reeling from Hurricane Helene — are now revving up for Hurricane Milton.

Hurricane Milton remains a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on Tampa and St. Petersburg, engulfing the populous region with towering storm surges and turning debris from Helene’s devastation 12 days ago into projectiles.

While the storm had previously weakened, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday that Hurricane Milton was once again a Category 5 storm.

The system, which is shaping up to be one of the most powerful to hit the region in years, is projected to make landfall a bit south of the Tampa area late Wednesday (October 9). Long-term care facilities in counties where mandatory evacuations have been issued are taking their patients elsewhere, while hospitals are largely on guard, preparing to stay open through the storm.

According to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' website, 10 hospitals have reported evacuations as of Tuesday afternoon. Three hundred health care facilities have evacuated as of this morning, the most many of the staff working there could remember, said Florida Agency for Health Care Administration deputy secretary Kim Smoak. That count included 63 nursing homes and 169 assisted living facilities.

Steve McCoy, chief of the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Emergency Medical Oversight, said it is the state's “largest evacuation ever”.

Health officials are using almost 600 vehicles to take patients out of the storm's path, tracking them with blue wristbands that show where they were evacuated from and where they are being sent. They plan to keep getting patients out through the night, until winds reach sustained speeds of 40 mph and driving conditions become unsafe.