Field hospitals set up to treat North Carolina storm victims sit mostly empty
LINVILLE, N.C. — Health care companies and nonprofit organizations have erected fully equipped field hospitals in North Carolina, in a pre-emptive attempt to treat residents injured by Hurricane Helene.
LINVILLE, N.C. — Health care companies and nonprofit organizations have erected fully equipped field hospitals in North Carolina, in a pre-emptive attempt to treat residents injured by Hurricane Helene.
But few patients had shown up Friday at the hospital set up in a large, white tent by Samaritan's Purse, an aid organization founded by Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, near the remote mountain towns of Newland and Linville, some 140 miles west of Greensboro.
The women's inpatient tent at the Samaritan's Purse field hospital in Linville, North Carolina.Minyvonne Burke / NBC NewsNor was there much traffic at the well-equipped field hospital staffed by Atrium Health in tiny Tryon, about 50 miles south of Asheville, near the South Carolina border.
As the number of dead continues to rise, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it has refrigerated trucks capable of holding several dozen bodies ready to deploy. More than half of the 215 people killed by Hurricane Helene as of Friday died in North Carolina, where extreme flooding destroyed homes, washed out roads and bridges, and left survivors to mourn their loved ones.
Wendy Henson, the lead nurse at the Atrium facility, said it has the capability to “support a local hospital in need if they are having an issue, and we can also replace a small-town hospital if it’s been taken out."
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