AlHijjah 16, 1433, Nov 1, 2012, SPA - New York City's Bellevue Hospital Center was evacuated Wednesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. The hospital had been running on backup generators since Superstorm Sandy knocked out power across parts of the city, but roughly 500 patients were evacuated Wednesday from Bellevue in Manhattan because of the damage it sustained. "We learned this morning that Bellevue will now have to evacuate because of damage that it has sustained," Bloomberg told reporters at a news conference. "They didn't think the damage was that bad and they had a generator going. But the bottom line is when they got into the basement they realized there was more damage. This is going to affect something like 500 patients." Several area hospitals were ready to take on patients from Bellevue, including The Mount Sinai Hospital and St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center. A number of other New York City hospitals had already been evacuated because of the storm that caused record flooding around the city.
