Power restored after issues force evacuation at Jefferson Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Patients were evacuated from Jefferson Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia on Tuesday night after basement flooding caused power issues, according to officials.

Power was restored as of 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

"We had a flood in the basement," said Jefferson Health CEO Joe Cacchione. "It shut the air conditioning off. I was up on the 5th floor. It's about 100 degrees up there."

Officials say the entire hospital had to be evacuated, which included roughly 190 patients.

Cacchione said the evacuations continued into Wednesday morning after water in the basement fried the electrical system.

The hospital says it has pumped out all of the water but has to remain closed until all systems are back online. It's unclear how long that will take.

"We're on partial commercial and partial generator. That's what is keeping our life support things and things that we have to have," said Cacchione.

Emergency crews raced into action at around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday to load patients into ambulances.

The Action Cam captured patients being transported from the hospital by ambulance to other locations.

Many of them could only be moved by stretcher, making for a long process that went through the night and into the morning.

"Wherever the patients are moved to, I hope they're taken care of pretty good," said David Calabro of South Philadelphia.

Officials say they've already evacuated more than 100 patients to other hospitals, mostly within the Jefferson system, and have about 15 more to go.

"Our staff worked all night in very difficult conditions. I couldn't be more proud of our staff, our emergency management response, our nurses, our doctors - everybody," said Cacchione.

Cacchione says the ER is open to walk-ups, but anyone who needs to be admitted will be taken to another hospital.

The hospital said in a statement that people seeking to reunite with family members or loved ones should call its information line at (215) 463-2031.

No injuries have been reported.