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NYU Langone Medical Center

NYU Langone Medical Center is a critical need, private nonprofit complex consisting of the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and three hospitals, Tisch Hospital is a 705-bed acute care facility,  the Hospital for Joint Diseases and the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.

Components of the facility’s electrical power generation, HVAC, backup power, an information technology network and infrastructure were damaged, or rendered inoperable. Medical equipment was inundated along with offices and classrooms. Floodwaters caused diesel fuel to leak and contaminate the flooded area.

Clean-up and emergency restoration began within hours of the last patient leaving and continued for nearly a year. FEMA personnel consulted with medical center staff, offering advice and help applying for FEMA funding. In December, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided nearly $150 million in funding through the Public Assistance program, to support

NYU Langone Medical Center re-opened its doors to surgical patients on Dec. 27, 2012, less than two months after Sandy struck. In January 2013 the medical center’s services expanded to include all pediatric services and labor and delivery. The restored and expanded emergency department, funded largely by a contribution from Ronald O. Perelman, opened for the first time since Hurricane Sandy in April 2014. FEMA funded the restoration and/or replacement of some equipment and mitigation measures designed to protect the emergency department from future storms.

A More Resilient Future

FEMA has provided an additional $1 billion in funding, through a Section 428 Capped Grant, for repair and mitigation measures. The Section 428 Capped Grant incudes $411 million for repair/restoration and contents from Hurricane Sandy damages across the medical campus and $589 million in Section 406 hazard mitigation costs.

This represents repairs to ten buildings in the medical campus block, four off-site office facilities, five parking and garage facilities, Campus-wide Contents and Equipment, Research Animals and Bio-specimens, Telephony and Information Technology.

Floodwater from Hurricane Sandy entered the NYU campus through multiple external building sources and spread internally through interconnecting corridors and conduits.  NYU has proposed an integrated approach to protect the internal functions and features of the entire campus facility where a unified site flood protection strategy is implemented. The first line of defense is an integral flood barrier composed of both horizontal and vertical mitigation measures protecting the envelope of all campus buildings.  Flood barriers are employed to bridge the gaps between buildings and where the flood barrier is not part of the building structural wall system. An internal layer of protection has been incorporated to safeguard critical building systems and specialized equipment required for the hospital to function in a storm event. These measures include building compartmentalization, emergency power and elevation of critical elements and program service.

Construction is well underway. Critical utilities, communication networks, and clinical and research programs are being improved and raised above vulnerable levels. Gaps along the perimeter of the hospital campus are being filled and walls and floor slabs reinforced to protect the building from flood threats. Overall, the project is on target to be completed by August 2021, as planned.

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