KINGSTREE, SC (WBTW) – Many are still working to get back on their feet after the October floods and it’s no different for the Williamsburg Regional Hospital in Kingstree.
The severe rain storm damaged the facility beyond repair and had to shut the doors in February.
For almost two months, the sign out front has read “temporarily closed.”
“We were on an island surrounded by water. We couldn’t get in, we couldn’t get out. I even asked for a helicopter to fly staff in,” said hospital C.E.O. Sharon Poston.
The only thing I can tell you is that God is driving this train,” she mentioned.
The heavy rains from October accumulated so much on the roof that it actually shifted the drains. It forced the hospital to close and put out this notice to the public deciding to reduce a large portion of their staff.
However, they plan to open a new modular emergency room in the next couple of weeks.
“Our folks in Williamsburg County only have after 5:00 p.m. access to our rural health clinic and it’s an office not an emergency room. So it is imperative that we get this emergency room and running as fast as possible,” Poston stated.
The last portion the modular ER is expected to arrive any day now. The mobile ER should be open in the next few weeks.
“A lot of folks are even saying, I need to have this and that done, but I’m going to wait until you’re back open again. They don’t want to go anywhere else. They want to be here at home,” said Poston.
The goal is to have a groundbreaking for the new hospital soon.
The hospital looks to rehire some of the workers who were let go when the hospital closed once the ER and eventually the hospital reopens.