WINGHAM, ONT -- It all happened so fast.
“Pretty bad, very quickly,” says Kelly Finlayson, VP of Clinical Services at the Listowel Memorial Hospital.
Around 4:30 this morning, a 10-inch water main that feeds the fire hose cabinets at the Listowel hospital burst, sending water everywhere.
Hospital CEO, Karl Ellis says 90% of the ground floor of the hospital was covered in water.
At it’s worst, the water was as much as 12 inches deep, but it was ankle deep in most other areas.
“All hands on deck here at the hospital. Staff have been amazing. Everyone trying to cleanup and get a handle on the amount of water that was in our building. We’ve also called in a restoration company to come in and help us because the damage is extensive,” says Finlayson.
The worst damage is in the maintenance room, where a section of concrete floor was lifted about 12 inches.
The flooding affected important parts of the hospital, like the Emergency Room, Diagnostic Imaging, Lab, and Ambulatory Care.
“We worked to try to stop the damage as quickly as possible. We’re still doing a review and assessment of the extent of the damage. Our CT scanner doesn’t appear to be damaged at this time, but it may be too early to tell,” says Finlayson.
All appointments and most procedures and surgeries are cancelled today. The emergency room is open, but only for the most urgent care. Officials are asking people to stay away from the hospital, until at least tomorrow.
“We’re hoping by tomorrow we’ll be back up to 100%,” says Finlayson.
While hospital staff are used to the unexpected, Finlayson says this will be a morning no one at the Listowel Memorial Hospital will ever forget.
“Crazy, crazy morning,” she says.
