They were rescued by helicopter, according to state officials.
At least 54 people were trapped on the roof of a hospital in Tennessee on Friday after floodwaters due to Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded the medical center.
Unicoi County Hospital -- located in the northeastern part of the state on the border with North Carolina -- took on so much flooding that those inside could no longer be safely evacuated and had to relocate to the roof. "I don't think very many people have seen something like this before," Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine said while speaking at Unicoi County High School. "The most important thing is the safety of our employees and patients. Thank God, thanks to the great work of Tennessee and Virginia partnering to help us get this rescue underway, they're all safe."
Ballad Health said in a statement on X on Friday that it received notice a little after 9:30 a.m. ET from the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency that the hospital needed to be evacuated to the water from a nearby river rising quickly.
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