A power outage at Opelika-based East Alabama Medical Center caused the hospital to redirect its ambulance and emergency room services for over an hour Monday night, according to oanow.com.
After lightning struck a nearby transformer, the hospital imposed a disaster plan at 7:22 p.m. to address the issue. At 9:00 p.m. the hospital enacted its diversion plan, which calls for patients in need of emergency services to be redirected to other hospitals.
Both the disaster plan and diversion plan ended at 10:30 p.m. when power was restored to the facility.
"It affected our power, including our chillers. And so there wasn't much air flow and it probably caused discomfort," EAMC spokesman, John Atkinson, told oanow.com.