Tampa General Hospital protected by ‘AquaFence’ during Hurricane Helene: ‘We can’t evacuate’

Tampa General Hospital protected by ‘AquaFence’ during Hurricane Helene

FOX 13's Lloyd Sowers reports.

TAMPA, Fla. - As Hurricane Helene approaches, crews work fast to build a wall against the storm at Tampa General Hospital, which is right on the Hillsborough Bay.

Dustin Pasteur, the vice president of facilities at TGH, said it takes 60 people and three full days to set up the wall called "AquaFence." It's nine feet high and 1,000 feet long, stretching around the entire TGH facility on Davis Islands.

It's designed to hold back a 15-foot storm surge, which might be expected from a direct hit by a Category 3 hurricane.

Hurricane Helene: Hillsborough County updates & information

"We're a 100-year-old hospital, and we're right here on the bay. We can't evacuate," said Pasteur. "There are not enough hospital beds in the region to take our patients."

The hospital paid around $1 million for AquaFence, which was first used during the 2021 hurricane season. Crews bolt the bottom of the sections of fence to the pavement and attach straps to the back, but the real force that holds it up is when floodwaters pile onto the horizontal "foot" of the fence.

"The weight of the water supports the wall. We bolt it into the ground to keep it from blowing over before the water gets here," said Pasteur.

READ: Tampa International Airport suspending operations ahead of Hurricane Helene

He said the Aquafence has been used for years in places like Norway to hold streams within their banks. Only in Tampa is it used to protect a hospital.

Tampa General was built in the mid 1920s on Davis Islands in Hillsborough Bay. People still wonder why they would build it there just a few years after the big hurricane of 1921 – the last time Tampa suffered a direct hit from a major hurricane.

"It's not an ideal location to build a facility like this," said Pasteur.

The army of people who install and remove the fence before and after major storm threats don't question century-old decisions. They can only prepare as best they can to turn a hospital into a fortress to protect their hundreds of patients from the storm.

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