Hospital power out

A man surveys damage on Wednesday, October 31, in the Rockaway neighborhood of Queens, New York, where the historic boardwalk was washed away during Superstorm Sandy. Residents and businesses across the Eastern Seaboard are attempting to return to their daily lives and normal operations as cleanup from Sandy continues. View photos of New York bracing for Sandy. Residents walk with their belongings through the Rockaway section of Queens on Wednesday. The remains of homes burned down in Rockaway are seen Wednesday, a day after an inferno spread across the flooded neighborhood. Firefighters continued to survey the damage in Rockaway on Wednesday. At least 80 homes were destroyed. People wait for buses on Sixth Avenue in New York on Wednesday as New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. People attempt to squish into a crowded bus on First Avenue in New York on Wednesday. Con Edison crew members work on a steam pipe on First Avenue on Wednesday. The foundations to the historic Rockaway boardwalk in Brooklyn are all that remain after it was washed away Wednesday during Hurricane Sandy. People walk to work Wednesday on a normally busy street near the New York Stock Exchange. Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday after it had been closed for two days. Commuters arrive in Manhattan by ferry from Jersey City, New Jersey, on its first day back in business after Sandy. CNN iReporter Jordan Shapiro captured this view of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, October 30. Half of the bridge and Brooklyn is lit, while the Manhattan side and the surrounding part of the island remain shrouded in darkness. A subway station and escalator sit underwater in New York on Tuesday. Much of the New York City skyline sits in darkness Tuesday evening after damage from Superstorm Sandy knocked out power. About 6.9 million customers are without power in 15 states and the District of Columbia, according to figures compiled by CNN from power companies. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, center, views the damage Tuesday in the Breezy Point neighborhood of Queens, where a fire broke out during Superstorm Sandy and destroyed at least 80 homes. A resident looks through the debris of his destroyed home in Breezy Point, Queens, on Tuesday. Burned-out vehicles and destroyed homes line a street in Breezy Point, located on the western end of the Rockaway peninsula in New York. A fire continues to burn Tuesday in the remains of a structure that was destroyed by the Breezy Point blaze. A New York City man hands a dog to first responders while being evacuated on Tuesday. A bartender at the International Bar in the East Village neighborhood of New York City makes drinks in the dark on Tuesday as electricity remains out for many in the city. Water floods the Plaza Shops in New York, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, on Tuesday, October 30. Con Edison employees monitor the drainage of water being pumped out of Seven World Trade Center in the Financial District of New York on Tuesday. Onlookers watch a construction crane dangling from a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise after collapsing in high winds. The construction crane dangles from a high-rise in midtown Manhattan. Ramiro Arcos clears debris from a storm drain in the Financial District of New York after Sandy swept through the city. A couple walks in the rain Tuesday, with the East River and the Lower Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. The Manhattan skyline remains dark after much of the city lost electricity in the storm. Cars float in a flooded below-street-level parking area in the Financial District on Tuesday. People take a Tuesday morning walk on the Brooklyn Bridge, which remains closed to traffic after the city awakened to the storm damage. A car sits crushed by a tree in the Financial District on Tuesday. Photos: New York braces for Sandy. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Source: It could take two days to evacuate 700 patients from Bellevue Hospital The hospital is near another hospital forced to evacuate patients after the storm Pumps designed to fuel generators were flooded under 8 feet of water, the source says CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Most critically ill patients at the hospital have already evacuated New York (CNN) -- Dozens of ambulances lined up Wednesday to evacuate hundreds of patients from a New York hospital that lost power during Superstorm Sandy. It could take up to two days to evacuate 700 patients from Bellevue Hospital, according to a source familiar with the evacuation plan. Staff there have been carrying oil up 12 flights of stairs, trying to keep emergency generators going on the hospital's upper floors. Basement pumps designed to the fuel the generators were flooded under 8 feet of water, the source said. 7 ways to manage stress in a disaster Officials decided Wednesday to evacuate all the remaining patients from the hospital, which is located along the East River, just north of Manhattan's 26th Street. Baby Emma moved during storm Responding wisely to Sandy's lessons Sandy wipes out New Jersey landmark Restoring power to millions after Sandy "What they realize is that their emergency generators are not continuing to work well," said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, who was reporting from outside the hospital Wednesday. Most of the hospital's critically ill patients have already been evacuated from the hospital, he said, noting that moving such patients is a particularly difficult process. "It can be very challenging ... even to transfer them within the hospital from one floor to the next. That can be a real challenge," Gupta said. "It's a very coordinated process. You always plan for the worst-case scenario. Everything from a patient's heart rate to their body temperature can change." But now that most of the critically ill patients have been evacuated, Gupta said evacuating the 700 remaining patients is "likely to be more methodical, a little bit slower, perhaps even look a little more organized than over the last 24 hours." Hurricane safety: When the lights go out The hospital is just a few blocks away from NYU's Langone Medical Center, where staff evacuated about 260 patients -- including newborn babies that had been in intensive care -- after the storm hit. At times with only flashlights to illuminate the way, hospital employees carried some patients down 15 flights of stairs to ambulances ready to take them to the safety of other hospitals. Langone didn't anticipate such heavy flooding from Sandy and chose not to evacuate all its patients before the storm. But as the storm hit Monday night, the hospital's basement, lower floors and elevator shafts filled with 10 to 12 feet of water, and the hospital lost its power, according to Dr. Andrew Brotman, senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs and strategy. "Things went downhill very, very rapidly and very unexpectedly," Brotman said. "The flooding was just unprecedented." NYU doctor to CNN's Piers Morgan: "We are always prepared" CNN's Elizabeth Cohen and Matt Sloane contributed to this report.