Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco will receive $5.4 million in FEMA funding to secure its electrical system after a massive power failure left the hospital and its patients vulnerable during Hurricane Sandy.
During the 2012 storm, the second costliest in U.S. history, the hospital”™s outdated power system failed, leaving staff and patients in the dark for 70 hours.
The hospital is a 233-bed facility with 600 physicians serving about 350,000 people in the region on an emergency, inpatient and outpatient basis.
According to a joint statement by congressional leaders Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Nita Lowey, infrastructure failure during a storm can leave residents without any emergency care, which would stretch resources of first responders and the larger disaster response system and lead to overwhelming cost to the hospital and community. The $5.4 million in FEMA funds will be used to cover 70 percent of the hospital’s $7.2 million electrical system upgrade, which will bring the 45-year-old emergency power system in line with current safety regulations and bolster it against future storms.
“It is scary to think that one switch could mean the difference between being able to provide emergency care and going completely dark,” Schumer said. “With this $5.4 million, the hospital will finally be able to overhaul its emergency power system to eliminate the nightmare scenario and better prepare for handling the next storm.”
