With the focus on the pandemic, Orlando hospitals remind public they’re not hurricane shelters

Every year during the hurricane season, hospitals in Florida remind residents to not try to use the facilities as shelter. This year, their plea is even stronger because of the pandemic, which requires social distancing measures.

“You only have so much real estate inside of a hardened structure. So because of that, space is going to run out very, very fast,” said Rick Sanchez, director of safety and emergency management at AdventHealth.

This year, the health system has had to consider how to space out sleeping and rest areas for employees who may have to hunker down during a hurricane.

“We may have to flex into certain areas where traditionally we did not, just to make sure that whoever is on our property while the storm is bearing down on us, we can keep people safe enough inside the facility with social distancing in place,” said Sanchez.

As they do each year, the systems have been stockpiling supplies and water in case of a power outage, although this year because of the pandemic, items like paper towels, toilet paper and gloves have been harder to get.

“A lot of the essential supplies that are needed for hurricane response are the same as what has been saturated for COVID response. They were a challenge with COVID. Now they’re going to be even more of a challenge with hurricane or tropical systems,” said Eric Alberts, corporate director of emergency preparedness at Orlando Health. “We’ve been working on our supplies and our equipment for a very long time now. So we just continue to build on it and build on it. We don’t stop.”

Alberts said that Orlando Health launched a resiliency and mitigation committee this week to “look beyond just the storms and this pandemic.”

“What do we need to do to make sure we sustain Orlando Health with our buildings and our structures and make it safe but make it more resilient for the future?” he said.

The hurricane season starts on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. This year, the season is projected to have higher than normal activity and if history has it right, one or more hit the state.

“Before 2016, we had an 11-year absence of hurricanes that had landfall in Florida, but since 2016, we’ve had one almost every year now. So all it takes is one event,” said Sanchez.

Hospital officials urged the public to prepare and plan for the hurricane.

“Find out what your community resources are. What your counties have and what they can do for you. If you have a place that you can go outside of the state of Florida or outside of your county where you can evacuate to, make those plans now, but if you can’t evacuate and need to stay at your decision, then know what resources are available to you,” said Sanchez.