A s Superstorm Sandy bore down on the New Jersey coast last fall, officials at the Southern Ocean Medical Center in Manahawkin huddled to figure out what to do. Nor'easters had historically pummeled the low-lying area laced with inlets, and so the hospital was taking the storm seriously. To compound problems, Southern Ocean was nearing the end of the first phase of a two-phase project to build a new emergency department (ED) and renovate its existing ED structure. The 32,500-sq-ft project would more than triple the ED's size and nearly double the hospital's patient rooms to 42.
Hoping for the best, the hospital secured the construction site and pushed up delivery of essentials—medicine, food and oil—by several days to ensure their arrival before the Oct. 29 storm. It also added cots for some of its 1,000 employees in case roads became impassable.