Workers set up a fence to prevent flooding at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida, on August 29, as the city prepares for Hurricane Idalia. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP/Getty ImagesMajor hospitals in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area are preparing for a significant storm surge from Hurricane Idalia. Tampa General Hospital – located in the Davis Islands neighborhood in a surge-prone area of the city — has gone as far as to construct a water-impermeable barrier around parts of its campus. “We are a 259-bed hospital and the largest freestanding pediatric hospital in the area so (we) are prepared to take in patients in need of medical care,” Caci said. BayCare, a hospital system that owns 16 acute-care hospitals in the Tampa Bay area, also said it didn't anticipate any "operational changes” other than closing some ambulatory services.

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Persons: Idalia, Miguel J, Rodriguez Carrillo, Tampa General Hospital –, Karen Barrera, Barrera, Tampa General “, ” Johns, isn’t, Danielle Caci, ” Caci, ”, Lisa Razler Organizations: Tampa General Hospital, AFP, Getty, Idalia, CNN, Tampa, Tampa General, ” Johns Hopkins, Children's Locations: Tampa, Tampa , Florida, St, Petersburg, Davis, St . Petersburg