North Carolina Megachurch Turned Into Hospital to Serve Medical Evacuees of Hurricane Florence

As Hurricane Florence flooded North Carolina this month, an nondenominational megachurch was turned into a makeshift medical shelter to provide safe haven for some of the most medically-reliant people in the area.

Although thousands of people were evacuated throughout North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia to normal disaster response shelters, some evacuees needed more care than could be provided in a typical evacuation shelter.

Thankfully for people in the Raleigh area, C3 Church in Clayton voluntarily opened its doors to those in need of medical assistance during what is said to be the wettest tropical cyclone ever to strike the Tarheel State.

According to North Carolina Health News, Pastor Matt Fry wanted his church to be proactive in its response to Hurricane Florence, as the storm was projected to hit the region for days leading up to the heavy downpour.

Having seen the damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Fry called county officials ahead of the storm and volunteered the church to be used as a shelter.

The church, which sits on 47-acre former tobacco field, had never before been used as a medical shelter. But after making the call to county officials, that changed.

"One thing led to another ... to now where we have a hospital here," Fry told North Carolina Health News. "We were already set up before the storm even hit."

Thanks to the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, the church was staffed with a team of 72 medical professionals led by team commander Keren Hilger, an emergency physician from Alaska. The shelter was also assisted by a team of church volunteers.

Additionally, several trucks filled with state and federal emergency supplies were sent to the church providing supplies to create a 50-75 bed facility to cater to the most vulnerable evacuees in the metropolitan region.

"Everybody, no matter what their role is, will help a patient," Hollie Benson, the acting deputy team commander with the USPHS, told CBS17. "Do you need some water? Let me sing to you. They will paint nails and cut toenails or braid hair and this is totally different than what their job is as a nurse or pharmacist or dentist is. So, seeing the patients light up and doing what we can to help them while they're here is really the best thing."

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