Sandy's Public Hospital Toll Over $300M

The city announced it would allocate $300 million to public hospitals to help repair the damage. However, that job means rebuilding to a standard that could withstand another Sandy. Cost of rebuilding flooded Bellevue, Coney Island and other public hospitals in city damaged by the superstorm will likely be higher than city's initial tally. The final price tag is likely to be 'north of $300 million', according to the city's Health and Hospitals Corp.

It could take far more to repair Superstorm Sandy's damages to New York's public hospital system than the $300 million the city has said it will spend, says Alan Aviles, president of the city's Health and Hospitals Corp. Mr. Aviles spoke Tuesday about some of the lessons his organization is taking away from the storm–and how Health and Hospitals will rebuild going forward.

The city announced this week it would allocate $300 million to public hospitals to help repair the damage. But that job means rebuilding to a standard that could withstand another Sandy. The price tag for this is likely to be "north of $300 million," Mr. Aviles said.

The two hardest-hit public hospitals in the city were Bellevue and Coney Island hospital, both of which flooded during the storm and had to be evacuated. Mr. Aviles was at Coney Island Hospital while it was flooding during the storm's peak on Oct. 29.

At one point, a raft bearing emergency workers and evacuees floated into the hospital lobby. At Bellevue, a flood in the basement eventually caused the hospital to lose its backup generator.

Mr. Aviles said it would take two months to fully restore the Coney Island site and three months for Bellevue, though certain services will be available sooner. Mr. Aviles said it would be hard to tell at this point how much it will cost to rebuild, since the organization is focused on getting the hospitals back to full capacity as quickly as possible.

"We are completely focused on getting these hospitals up and running," Mr. Aviles said, adding that the task means having to reposition the hospitals to be able to handle future storms like Sandy.

"We're going to go forward assuming this kind of storm can happen next year."