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Hurricane Sandy - Looking Back One Year Later


IsentropicLift

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They are just waiting to see what happens after the bankruptcy. NBC did an in depth interview in December.

 

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Long-Beach-Medical-Center-Hospital-Bankrupt-Sandy-Storm-Employees-Lawsuit-235167851.html

 

 

A struggling Long Island hospital devastated by Sandy will file for bankruptcy, according to a state assemblyman who has been briefed by state and hospital officials.

Long Beach Medical Center has been closed since last year, leaving hundreds of its employees without jobs when there was no hospital to run.

"The reality is, the hospital as it stood will not be the same," said Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg.

Weisenberg says the bankruptcy will pave the way for a possible merger with South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside. But what will be left on Long Beach is still uncertain, according to Weisenberg.

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It's good to finally see some progress on that end-nothing was more depressing than seeing the large groups of abandoned homes in the West End. From what I saw, homes that were even raised a few feet suffered much less damage than homes right on street level, so the new homes should be much better able to withstand a major surge like we saw in Sandy. However, we still desperately need the L.B. hospital to reopen in some capacity-having a barrier island of 50,000+ residents without a hospital is unacceptable.

 

That longer ambulance trip to South Nassau up on Merrick Road in Oceanside isn't something you want to see continue.

 

http://liherald.com/longbeach/stories/Concerns-over-LBMCs-closure-persist,51427

 

 

Ever since the Long Beach Medical Center closed after Hurricane Sandy — and amid ongoing discussions with the State Department of Health and merger talks with South Nassau Communities Hospital — admissions at SNCH have increased by about 120 per month, or 75 percent, since before the storm, while “treat and release” visits to its emergency room have increased by around 225 per month, or 86 percent.

“Because the 120 additional admissions a month were first seen in the [Emergency Department], the E.D. is averaging more than 300 visits per month as a result of the closing of LBMC,” SNCH spokesman Damian Becker said.

Billy Piazza, president of Local 287, the union representing the Long Beach Fire Department’s career firefighters, said that the department responds to roughly 3,500 emergency medical service calls per year. Now that ambulances must travel from Long Beach to either SNCH or Nassau University Medical Center, turnaround time for an ambulance — the time it takes to transport a patient to a hospital and then return to the city — can reach 90 minutes, Piazza said.

He said that the Fire Department now operates two ambulances regularly, though a third or fourth may be added at times depending on the number of personnel on duty or the time of year.

“There are a lot of factors that go into the turnaround time,” Piazza said. “One depends on how busy the hospital is — if you’re going by ambulance, it doesn’t mean you jump the line when you arrive there. The turnaround time used to be 40 minutes to an hour, but now that could be an hour and a half, depending on how busy the hospital is and traffic. Having the hospital open with a functioning E.R. is definitely a benefit.”

Ray Ellmer, who sits on Long Beach Medical Center’s Board of Trustees, spoke at the Nov. 19 City Council meeting about the need for a local hospital that could accept ambulances. “We are seeing in Long Beach that children and adults are dying in ambulances or dying shortly thereafter in emergency rooms because it takes … too much time to get over to South Nassau,” he said.

Piazza disagreed, saying that he does not believe any patients have died as a direct result of LBMC’s closure. “I don’t see the connection that more people are dying,” he said, adding that LBMC did not have a trauma unit. “Is the hospital’s closure a tremendous inconvenience? Yes. But I question the validity of that statement. [Patients] are being treated with the same exact medications [in the ambulance] that they would receive in the hospital.”

 
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How far away is the nearest hospital now?

 

 

What is the hold up on LB hospital from re-opening?

The nearest hospital is South Nassau, about a 15-20 minute drive away. The hospital was re-built as of June last year, but the hospital ran a deficit for quite some time and was prohibited by the state from reopening.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i was on washington avenue in Green Brook today... the part of the road that goes straight up the mountain.  the hill faces south east.... and the woods on the side of the hill are almost flattened.  really impressive damage.... hundreds of trees just flattened. i can only imagine what the wind speeds were during the storm.  i dont know the elevation... maybe 250 feet?  there is nothing but air from there to the atlantic ocean.

this high spot is right at "washington rock" where george viewed British troop movement in 1777.  the exposure is impressive. all hell broke loose there when sandy hit.

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i was on washington avenue in Green Brook today... the part of the road that goes straight up the mountain.  the hill faces south east.... and the woods on the side of the hill are almost flattened.  really impressive damage.... hundreds of trees just flattened. i can only imagine what the wind speeds were during the storm.  i dont know the elevation... maybe 250 feet?  there is nothing but air from there to the atlantic ocean.

this high spot is right at "washington rock" where george viewed British troop movement in 1777.  the exposure is impressive. all hell broke loose there when sandy hit.

Its actually 500 feet at the top, route 22 is about 100 feet ASE

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Its actually 500 feet at the top, route 22 is about 100 feet ASE

 

lol.  yep. i had no idea really.  in that spot the hill just goes straight up.  the winds must of been insane when sandy hit. the tree damage is nuts.

 

i was a few miles from there in warren back in august.  again, that's up in the hills, and saw spots where the tree damage was sick.  a few houses were completely destroyed by  fallen trees.... and they were still sitting there like the day it happened.... trees completely bisecting a huge house.  anywhere in the watchung range would have been nuts the night of sandy.  

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lol. yep. i had no idea really. in that spot the hill just goes straight up. the winds must of been insane when sandy hit. the tree damage is nuts.

i was a few miles from there in warren back in august. again, that's up in the hills, and saw spots where the tree damage was sick. a few houses were completely destroyed by fallen trees.... and they were still sitting there like the day it happened.... trees completely bisecting a huge house. anywhere in the watchung range would have been nuts the night of sandy.

Yeah a lot of places I've been hiking particularly in Morris county and down in Freehold, the trails are almost impassible

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  • 8 months later...

Great to see movement on Long Beach finally getting an emergency department back.

 

http://liherald.com/longbeach/stories/Sale-of-LBMC-to-South-Nassau-is-finalized,60015?page=1&content_source=

 

October 22, 2014 | 391 views
UPDATED
Sale of LBMC to South Nassau is finalized

The sale of Long Beach Medical Center to South Nassau Communities Hospital was finalized last week, after South Nassau reached an agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the release of nearly $180 million in Hurricane Sandy aid to SNCH to redevelop health care services in Long Beach and surrounding communities.

In a meeting with Herald editors last week, South Nassau President and CEO Richard Murphy said the two facilities had concluded the $11.8 million sale on Oct. 16, which will not only allow South Nassau to move forward with its takeover of the facility and the establishment of a free-standing emergency department, but will lead to a public forum with the state Department of Health that residents have been calling for.

 

As part of the agreement, South Nassau will reimburse more than 450 former LBMC employees who were laid off after the storm — including those who filed a class action lawsuit against the hospital and its CEO, Doug Meltzer — a total of $1 million for accrued vacation time.

Murphy said that South Nassau remained committed to establishing a 911-receiving emergency department with ambulance services, and that the facility would operate 24/7. It may also include 20 to 30 beds for short-term care in order to hold patients until they are stabilized, at which point they would be transferred to South Nassau or a hospital of their choice.

 

If the west wing — where LBMC’s emergency department is located — can be used, then South Nassau will begin renovating and restoring it, a process that could take at least a year. If the wing has to be demolished, however, officials said, South Nassau would likely rebuild the emergency department on the hospital grounds or work with the city to find another area in Long Beach that is centrally located — which could take longer than a year.

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Upton's presentation by Jeffery Tongue at tri-state conference last weekend showed sounding data from Sandy's winds had maxed out in our area, that evening. The winds and storm surge were made more severe by instability mixing down strong winds still aloft and bad timing with astronomical high tides. The storm's strength or category is less of a factor. We had get away from the previous ideas of a "Cat 1/4 storm surge".

 

The Islip 13" rainfall total over this past summer was mentioned and a radar image shown. Jeffery Tongue thought was more impressive than Sandy.

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