A Louisiana hospital chain said 'every facility' has roof damage from Hurricane Ida

• Ochsner Health's president said that "probably every facility" sustained roofing and water damage from Hurricane Ida.
• He said that two of the Ochsner's facilities have been evacuated due to damages.
• Videos from Twitter show the roof of the New Orleans' branch flying off from high winds.

A Louisiana hospital chain said that every one of its locations experienced some form of roofing or water damage from Hurricane Ida.

Ochsner Health owns and manages 40 hospitals around the Louisiana area. Warner Thomas, the president and CEO of Ochsner Health, said in a Monday morning press conference that all of its buildings were affected by the category 4 storm.

"I would say that probably every facility we have had roof issues or water intrusion," Thomas said. "It's not like we had catastrophic roof failures, but we had a lot of water get into areas."

Thomas said that roofers are already on-site at Ochsner's facilities and have begun to patch up the holes.

Video posted to Twitter shows the hurricane's strong winds rip off parts of the roofing from Ochsner's New Orleans' facility.

-Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) August 30, 2021

A nurse at Ochsner's Kenner location told WDSU News that its nurses sheltered in the hallway on Sunday night due to broken windows and roofing issues. There were no reported injuries at any of Ochsner's hospitals stemming from building damage.

Thomas said that two of Ochsner's hospitals have been evacuated - one in Chaubert and one in Raceland - equating to 65 total patients moved. Oschner's various hospitals are set to take in the evacuated patients as well as 100 patients from Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma.

Despite the devastating hurricane, Thomas told reporters that Ochsner's system is not too strained and has yet to see an influx of hurricane-related injuries, though he said this was likely due to the early evacuation warnings in the region.

New Orleans' officials are warning residents who fled to avoid returning to the city until further notice due to fallen trees and powerlines. The entire city is currently without power, and officials from Entergy said that electricity may not be restored for at least three weeks.