Why America's oldest hospital is being evacuated
November 01, 2012  04:55
CNN reports: Some details on why New York's Bellevue Hospital -- one of United States' largest hospitals -- is being evacuated: The building lost regular electricity service during the storm, and backup generators have been providing power since then. But people have been having to carry fuel up 12 flights of stairs, because the fuel pumps that normally supply the generators are in the basement, and the basement is flooded, a source told CNN.

Officials decided Wednesday that the fuel pumps aren't salvageable. "What they realize is that their emergency generators are not continuing to work well," said Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, who was reporting from outside the hospital Wednesday.

So, rather than continuing under these conditions, with regular power service not expected soon, officials decided to evacuate the remaining 700 patients. The most critically ill patients were evacuated earlier.

The evacuation process could take a couple days.
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