Tampa Bay’s main hospital is built on a low-lying island. Hurricane Milton could push its defenses to the limits.

An AquaFence flood wall is placed around Tampa General Hospital ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected mid-week landfall in Tampa, Florida, on October 8, 2024.

BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

Tampa General Hospital is bracing itself for Hurricane Milton with an AquaFence flood barrier.The flood wall is made to withstand a storm surge of up to 15 feet above sea level.Milton could generate surges that high — pushing the hospital’s defense to the limits due to its location.

As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida’s central-west coast, Tampa General Hospital, located on a low-lying man-made island, is bracing for disaster, and is preparing to put its flood defenses to the test.

The hospital, home to the region’s only Level I trauma center, said in a news release that it has deployed a water-impermeable flood barrier, known as an AquaFence, which is made to withstand a storm surge up to 15 feet above sea level.

Although the fence was successful in protecting the hospital from Hurricane Helene a couple of weeks ago, Hurricane Milton may prove more challenging.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Milton could generate storm surges as high as 15 feet — the limit of what the AquaFence is designed to endure.

A storm surge is a large rise in seawater levels caused by a storm.

Situated on Davis Islands and built in the 1920s from mud dredged from the bottom of Tampa Bay, the hospital is already in a high-risk flood zone, according to Hillsborough County’s Flood Zone Lookup tool.

The county’s Hurricane Evacuation Assessment Tool (HEAT) places the hospital in Zone A, indicating that it is in an area that is particularly vulnerable to a storm surge.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Tampa’s mayor, Jane Castor, urged people in zones A and B to move to higher ground.

“Say you’re in a single-story home,” Castor said. “Twelve feet is above that house. So, basically, that’s the coffin you’re in.”

Jennifer Crabtree, the hospital’s chief of staff, told the Tampa Bay Times that the AquaFence is just the “first line of defense” that has been implemented.

AquaFence’s flood defenses cost between $300 and $1,000 a linear foot, according to Bloomberg, and are in use in over two dozen states, including in areas prone to river flooding.

Crabtree also told the newspaper that no patients or hospital staff would be on the first floor of the hospital’s main campus during the storm.

Erinn Skiba, the hospital’s assistant director of public safety, said in the news release that the hospital has a “proactive and comprehensive” plan to protect itself.

This includes an on-site central energy plant located 33 feet above sea level, an on-site well, and 5,000 gallons of water being stored at the hospital.

“Our fence around the Davis Islands campus is up, supplies are stocked at all hospital locations, and the teams stand ready to provide care through Hurricane Milton,” Skiba said.

A previous disaster-planning project, modeled after a fictional “Hurricane Phoenix” that was more devastating than Milton is expected to be, highlighted Tampa General Hospital’s vulnerabilities.

Under the simulation, the fictional hurricane could have rendered bridges inaccessible and caused a storm surge to reach the second floor of the hospital.

Tampa General Hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Florida is bracing itself for the arrival of Milton, while still not having fully recovered from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on September 26 and caused widespread damage in the state.

As of Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation had received nearly $1.1 billion in estimated insurance losses.