Michigan's Oakwood Hospital-Dearborn, a 632-bed facility with 1.2 million square feet, sustained heavy damage to its emergency department when an August 2014 thunderstorm dumped 6 inches of rain on the region in two hours.
The lower level of the hospital flooded with up to 8 inches of storm water, which affected about 250,000 square feet of space, including the hospital's emergency department, the kitchen, radiation oncology, radiology, the in-patient pharmacy, and medical supply storage, according to an article on the FacilitiesNet website.
The facility's first step in responding to the flooding was to initiate its internal disaster response plan that had been developed by its emergency management team.
The plan also outlines an essential role for the environmental services staff.
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