GREENFIELD, Iowa — Six months after Greenfield's deadly EF-4 tornado, the only hospital in Adair County fully reopened its doors Monday.
The repairs to the Adair County Memorial Hospital are estimated to cost between $3 and $5 million, but were covered by insurance.
The day of the tornado, May 21, patients and staff had to take shelter when debris started flying inside the building.
“The tornado went north of our building, northeast through town,” Adair County Hospital CEO Catherine Hillestad. “Had we been any closer, we would have had a direct hit.”
All of the windows were shattered, the walls had shards of debris stuck in them and all of the floors suffered water damage.
While repairs were being done, the hospital operated out of Nodaway Valley Elementary School to continue to serve the community.
“We did what we had to do to get ourselves up and operating there,” Hillestad said. “It was a lot of teamwork that our entire team put into it.”
The room in the hospital that saw the greatest impact was the lab on the second floor. A large majority of the medical equipment had to be replaced in that room.
“We had to really gut the lab in its entirety just because of the damage that it took,” Hillestad said.
The lab, the emergency room, outpatient clinic and all other hospital facilities are all back open, ready to serve patients once again.
“It's been a lot for our employees and our staff for the past six months to go through all of this, but we're luckily back up and running,” Hillestad said.
With the hospital back up, Adair County residents won’t have to travel to a town over just to receive critical care.
“Having access is very important, especially for someone who's having a life altering event like a heart attack or a stroke,” Hillestad said. “Having the emergency room here and open for our patients is very important.”
The Adair County Hospital's EMS house was also completely destroyed by the tornado and it is still being rebuilt.
A grand re-opening celebration with refreshments and public tours of the hospital will take place on Dec. 4 at 4:30 p.m.