Over a decade since Superstorm Sandy ravaged the Tri-State Area and flooded the Old Coney Island Hospital, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital in the South Brooklyn Health Campus, nearly complete, has been designed with the goal of being the anti-hurricane hospital.
Future floods likely aren’t going to be able to reach the new emergency department; it is located on the second floor instead of the first. A four-foot concrete wall along the perimeter of the parking lot protects from intense flooding that has a 1-in-500 chance of occurring. The future second-floor emergency department is larger than usual, with more operating rooms with up-to-date technology, a robotic surgery theater, and inpatient dialysis.
Ambulances can access the second-floor emergency department via a concrete ramp. The fifth floor has backup power, water, and heating.
The area is still vulnerable to future flooding, though. According to the Risk Factor website, an online tool used to assess future flood risk, the area is at moderate risk of flooding in the next three decades.
“This hospital is going to be state of the art. So, you’re going to have the ability to take care of people through heat, illnesses, cold,” Terence Brady, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said. “Well, with climate change, I’m not so sure how much we’re gonna have freezing anymore.”
Projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration postulate the country’s coastline will see about a foot of sea-level rise by 2050. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospital should serve as an inspiration as extreme weather only becomes more common.
