Updated VA status IRT Hurricane Helene – 3 OCT 2024.

The Department of Veteran Affairs continues to respond to the evolving humanitarian and operational challenges in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Alongside maintaining operational capacity, VA’s top priority is accounting for and providing support to employees and Veterans impacted by the storm. Our efforts to meet the needs of impacted Veterans and employees include connecting Veterans to housing services, deploying an emergency home repair grant for employees whose homes were damaged due to the storm, and more. 

 In Western North Carolina, the emergency department and inpatient hospital services at the Asheville VA Medical Center remain operational and continue to serve Veterans in need. While outpatient clinical services remain curtailed, the facility continues to service walk-in patients on an as-needed basis. The Hickory and Franklin, NC outpatient clinics are open and ready to care for patients, and we expect the Rutherford clinic to be operational in the coming days. The Asheville facility has been able to account for nearly every employee and is focusing additional resources on reaching accountability for 100% of staff. The main Asheville medical center campus had commercial power restored this afternoon. The primary standby generator, a 1-megawatt backup generator, and an additional 1-megawatt contingency generator are available. The facility continues to have a sufficient fuel supply.The facility has coordinated a continuous schedule of eight 6,000-gallon water trucks that are keeping the water tower full. We are also pursuing an emergency contract to procure well water for redundancy. The facility has sufficient medical supplies and food for staff and Veterans, and we are coordinating with the county authorities to ensure we maintain our expanded services. Asheville pharmacy,social workers, and mental health staff are regularly visiting shelters to ensure Veterans are safe, have access to medications, and their needs are being met. 

There are also over 553 VA Consolidated Patient Accounting Center employees based in the Asheville area. As of yesterday evening, 548 have been accounted for and, outreach continues to establish contact with the remaining five. 

VA is monitoring the status of the Baxter medical fluids manufacturing facility in Marion, NC that was damaged by the storm and remains in contact with the manufacturer. We continue to evaluate our supplies for alternative sources of the medical fluids and plan for cross levelling in the case of potential shortages at individual facilities. This facility also supplies fluids used for peritoneal dialysis, and we are tracking any potential impacts closely with our national experts. 

In Georgia, the commercial water services at the Augusta VA Medical Center have been restored, and outpatient clinics have reopened. The facility is not yet providing dialysis or surgical services but did complete the transfer of 20 dialysis and spinal cord injury patients to the Atlanta VA Medical Center and area hospitals. Through direct and indirect reporting, the facility has now been able to account for 100% of staff. The Atlanta VA Medical Center continues to evaluate inpatient census for potential transfers out of the facility to make room for Veterans in nearby facilities requiring higher levels of care. Following a fire at a chemical facility in Atlanta, VA asked staff working in the network office to work remotely to avoid exposure to ambient noxious gases released by the fire.

Nationally, VA maintains communications with state and local homeless programs to deliver services to unhoused Veterans in the disaster zone. The pharmacy office is also collaborating with local VA pharmacies to prevent medications from being sent and potentially lost through ground transportation mail in areas where delivery is not possible. To maximize access to prescription drugs, VA has also activated our disaster response pharmacy benefit program to allow Veterans to fill their VA medications at community pharmacies.

Amid this crisis, VA employees are embodying the spirit of service by going above and beyond to care for their communities. VA leadership and staff are proactively reaching out to state and private Veterans homes to coordinate service delivery to address unmet needs. VA has assisted a civilian hospital with evacuating 36 patients fleeing the stormfront. To support disaster responders, one VA facility allowed a non-VA helicopter to land on the facility’s helicopter pad and resupply. In Asheville, VA is going to share the emergency water contractor with other healthcare facilities in the community struggling to secure clean water. Further, the VAcanteen service meal trailer delivered nearly 900 meals to VA employees and members of the community yesterday, and it is poised to deliver more in the coming days.