• Michael Espiritu, Uday Patil, Hannaise Cruz, Arpit Gupta, Heideh Matterson, Yang Kim, Martha Caprio, and Pradeep Mally.
• Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York michael.espiritu@nyumc.org.
• Pediatrics. 2014 Dec 1;134(6):e1662-9.

AbstractNICU patients are among those potentially most vulnerable to the effects of natural or man-made disaster on a medical center. The published data on evacuations of NICU patients in the setting of disaster are sparse. In October of 2012, New York University Langone Medical Center was evacuated during Hurricane Sandy in the setting of a power outage secondary to a coastal surge. In this setting, 21 neonates were safely evacuated from the medical center's NICU to receiving hospitals within New York City in a span of 4.5 hours. Using data recorded during the evacuation and from staff debriefings, we describe the challenges faced and lessons learned during both the power outage and vertical evacuation. From our experience, we identify several elements that are important to the functioning of an NICU in a disaster or to an evacuation that may be incorporated into future NICU-focused disaster planning. These include a clear command structure, backups (personnel, communication, medical information, and equipment), establishing situational awareness, regional coordination, and flexibility as well as special attention to families and to the availability of neonatal transport resources.Copyright © 2014 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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