When Hurricane Helene slammed the southeastern U.S. last year, Unicoi County, Tennessee, was hit especially hard, losing their hospital. CBS News' David Schecter investigates how the loss revealed more U.S. hospitals at risk.

A recent investigation has revealed that at least 170 hospitals in the United States are at significant risk of potentially dangerous flooding. This follows the evacuation of Unicoi County Hospital in Tennessee after Hurricane Helene caused severe flooding, trapping patients and staff until they were rescued by helicopter. Many of these hospitals are built in floodplains and could be shut down by a 100-year flood event, which is becoming more common due to climate change. The investigation also found that much of the identified risk does not appear on FEMA's official flood maps, as these maps are outdated and do not consider the impacts of climate change. Community members and emergency responders express concern for the safety of patients and hope that other at-risk communities will take action to mitigate these dangers.

Dozens of U.S. hospitals at risk for flooding

Do you think people adequately respect what the river could do? I think they respect it more now than they ever have. Jimmy Irwin has worked in emergency services in Unicoi County, Tennessee, since he was a teenager. He's one of many people here who never envisioned what Hurricane Helene could do to the county's now-abandoned hospital. And we got reports of massive water was coming our way. A year ago, EMS medic Rebecca Harrison had just finished a 24-hour shift when she was called back to work. It was a mess. It was a complete mess. County officials, fearing the hospital would flood, ordered all patients evacuated from Unicoi County Hospital. But the water was already too high for ambulances to safely drive away. As I walked in the front, the entire front of the hospital, in the parking lot, was full of water. Michelle Mattson, an emergency management coordinator for the state, was also on the scene. We have plan B now. Plan B is going to have to be some other way to get out because now we're trapped. Patients were loaded onto life rafts. For everyone else, the fire department put its ladders to work. If it hadn't have been for them and their ladder, it would have been a different story because there was no way to get on the roof. Angel Mitchell was at the hospital that day visiting her mother, who was now floating on a raft, while Angel was on the roof. And they're in there, laying in there with muddy blankets, wet water just covering them. It was just, it's something I would never want anybody to go through. When we drive over rivers, we drive over bridges. And you look down at those big concrete slabs thinking, oh, there's no way those can float. Those float when water is strong enough. And it was just like, there's no way one's not going to hit us. I started making phone calls, I have a special needs child, trying to make sure one of his older sisters or brothers, you know, was going to take care of them. And just telling them to be good and to make good life choices, just in case this thing went south, that I loved them. We're standing on the roof and I looked out in the yonder and here comes a helicopter. And I went, that's Virginia State Police. In total, helicopters rescued all 70 people stranded at the hospital. But the scenes here have the potential to be replicated around the country, because, like many others, this hospital was built in a floodplain. An investigation by our partners at KFF Health News analyzed flood simulation data from the company Fathom and identified at least 170 other U.S. hospitals facing the greatest risk of potentially dangerous flooding. Each of these hospitals could be shut down by a 100-year flood, the kind of extreme weather that has become more common due to climate change. I suppose they're all thinking this is never going to happen to them, too. Hopefully, seeing what happened in Tennessee and what's happened in other areas, maybe it'll make someone start thinking. This investigation also found that much of this identified hospital flood risk seen here in animations from around the country does not show up on FEMA's official flood maps, in part because those maps are outdated and do not account for climate change. After what happened to you, what's your level of concern for these other communities that are also in the face of similar events? Oh, I'm extremely concerned. It actually makes me angry that, you know, these people have to rely on these areas to get medical help, and they're dangerous. People go to the hospitals for help, not to be caught in a situation where no one can help them. After losing their hospital, many here hope that other communities with hospitals at risk will better understand the kind of destruction that's increasingly possible on a warming planet. For CBS Saturday Morning, I'm David Schechter in Unicoi County, Tennessee.

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