what we've done, staten island is a community of 500,000 people and as is obvious we're an island. we have two hospitals located on staten island. one is staten island universityeft for 500,000, richmond university medical center. the reason we're transferring our patients off of stoeld is not to put a great burden on richmond university medical center so they can care for needs over the next couple of days that we're not taking patients as inpatients. our emergency rooms will remain open. >> so your emergency room facilities at your hospital remain open. so you'll have health care providers there during the storm. >> we won be accepting them through 911 we will, however, have emergency personnel here to treat people who are walk-ins or brought in by family members. >> what have you told your health care providers at that hospital to do? where will they be, the bulk of them, over the next several days, and where do you plan to ride out this storm? >> we will go to a much lower level of staffing once the patients removed from this facility and maintain it mostly with facilities, plan ops and emergency personnel to deal with emergencies. i'll be at the hospital

. >> reporter: staten island university hospital has been open since 1861, during the civil war.first time they have ever closed their doors. this is the neo-natal intensive care unit. all the babies are gone now. the emergency room, normally controlled chaos, nearly empty, too. >> one way or another, you're putting him into an ambulance in the next three minutes. >> reporter: the chief doctor here, not hiding his displeasure at relinquishing his parents. >> this is our community. and you never want to not take care of this community and unfortunately we're in a situation where, at least, for a limited period of time, we can't. so, yeah. it's tough. >> reporter: you could see it on their faces, how wrenching it was to send away the people they're supposed to care for. as soon as the storm has passed, they say, they want their patients back. >> and so we choose the hospital woworkers across the hurricane zone, helping the most vulnerable. and dan harris tells us that all of those transfers of patients, including those babies, were a success. thank you for watching right now. "20/2

in the rest of the area, coney island hospital, both campuses of staten island, university hospital,an, nyu medical center on the upper east side are evacuating their patient to other hospitals. yesterday's executive order also covered eight nursing homes, one psychiatric facility and eight adult care centers. all of those, as i said, have been or in the process of evacuating. most facilities are completing this process themselves. a lot of the facilities have contracted with people to help them. but in some cases, city ambulance crews have been called in to help. we're glad to provide that service. another vulnerable population we're concentrating on is the homeless. we have four homeless shelters for families and four shelters for single adults in zone a. the clients will be relocated to our bedford, atlantic shelter in brooklyn and the el camino in jamai jamaica, queens. we're moving clients out of the intake center at 30th street and first avenue. outreach teams are stepping up activity to bring homeless clients living on the streets indoors. we're also taking steps to help those

in the rest of the area, coney island hospital, both campuses, staten island, university hospital, nyun: there you have it the mayor of new york speaking to the evacuation plans now mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying areas of new york, and throughout the 5 bureaus, from coney island to battery park city, some parts of the bronx, parts of staten island and so on, saying the evacuation are mandatory, urging people to get out by 5:00pm saturday evening and saying if you would leave immediately it would be most helpful since the mass transit system will be shut down in new york as of noon tomorrow, as of noon on saturday. the mayor saying nature is a force more powerful than any of us, this is and i quote very serious in his words. for those of you across the nation wondering why such a focus on new york city let me put it in prospective for you. new york city has over 8 million people living in it. the new york metropolitan area has over 19 million people living in it, that is 6% of the nation's population. the population density in this city is 800 times the national average. we l

island hospital both campuses of staten island and university hospital and the veterans affair hospital in manhattan and nyu medical center on the manhattan upper east side are evacuating patients to other hospitals and yesterday by executive order also covered eight nursing homes and one psychiatric facility and eight adult care centers, and all of those are or have been in the process of evacuating and most of the facilities are completing this process themselves, and a lot of the facilities have contracted with people to help them. but in some cases the city ambulance crews have been called in to help and we are happy to provide that service. another vulnerable population we are concentrate on is the homeless. we have four homeless shelters for families and two for single adults. the clients will be relocated to the bed-fitted shelter in brooklyn and also to the el camino shelter in queens. we are also taking the shelgters in 30th street and manhattan as well and at the same time outreach teams are stepping up -- >>> i'm tamron hall and the news nation is following breaking news in e

manhattan, staten island, coney island, et cetera, but when you add nursing homes, wolf, and other health care facilities, 22 facilities had to get people out. and i sat at new york universityand watched as they brought people from the intensive care unit, we're talking premature babies comes out of the nicu and it was really done in a smooth and calm fashion, as you can imagine, there is a story behind every patient who had to leave the hospital to be transferred somewhere else. i caught up with one of those patients, irene whose brother has a cancerous brain tumor. let's listen to irene. >> it just feels like what else can you throw into this. it's bad enough having to live with his diagnosis and try and get the medical help and then, you know, it's just -- everything that you try to do, you just keep getting slapped back down. but, you know, we'll get him to a hotel tonight and, you know, have a maid and we'll just weather the storm there. >> now her brother was in good enough shape that he could make that trip out of the hospital, but you know what, wolf, there's about ten patients at nyu who were too sick to evacuate that hospital. so they were there as we speak, so it

at new york university hospital, 400 patients moved to higher ground, same with the low lining coney island hospital. and statenemergency room is now empty. today more evacuations, around 370,000 people in zones city has labeled "a" and "b". it's the first time new york has ever evacuated residents because of a hurricane. >> it's better. it takes precautions and gets out of the way of the storm. mother nature is much stronger than all of us. >> strong enough to flood heavily populated areas of the city. the storm surge is expected to reach above five feet which would put battery park in manhattan under water. rest of the city will not escape irene. >> the world's largest transit system will shut down at noon. subways and buses and trains around new york, paralyzing the city and 8 million people who use the system. other closures the beaches the bridges in and out of manhattan, major highways once winds reach 60 miles an hour. outside of the city in new jersey, atlantic city is closing casinos and the governor ordered everyone out of the pool so to speak. >> get the hell off the beach. you have maximized your ta

at new york university hospital, 400 patients moved to higher ground, same at the low-lying coney island hospital, and on staten island, a normally chaotic emergency room now empty. >> it's devastating to see, and it's devastating to see them be so frightened. >> reporter: today more evacuations. around 370,000 people in zones the city has labeled "a" and "b" closest to the water and sea level. it's the first time new york has evev evacuated its residents because of a hurricane. >> it's better to take precautions and get out of the way of the storm. mother nature is much stronger than all of us. >> reporter: strong enough to flood heavily populated areas of the city. the storm surge is expected to reach above five feet, which would put battery park and southern manhattan under water, and the rest of the city will not escape irene. the world's largest transit system will shut down at noon. subways, buses and trains around new york paralyzing the city and the 8 million people who use the system. other closures, the beaches, the bridges in and out of manhattan, major highways once winds reach 60 miles per hour, an