KENT - Potential flooding in the Kent Valley is forcing a non profit organization to prepare for evacuation now and every year for the foreseeable future.
Four foot high walls are going up around the Pediatric Interim Care Center to protect the drug-impacted infants inside. The center is the only one in the state that specializes in caring for babies exposed to drugs before birth. The prospect of flooding has forced the center to spend $20,000 preparing for an evacuation.
"We have everything set up to go to Valley Medical Center. They have set aside an area for us to come if we hear that they're going to release water and there's possible flooding," said Executive Director Barbara Drennen.
Upstairs there are evaucation supplies in the kitchenette. In case of a major flood, information will automatically come over the radio. The center has lanterns, portable basinettes, oxygen tanks and vehicles ready to take the baibes to higher ground.
That's the short term solution, but here's the three-year problem: staying at Valley General or any other hospital would cost about $3,700 per child per day compared to just $259 per child in an at-home setting.
The PICC wants to find an affordable home in which to stay during the "flood prone" months, and that's proving daunting.
"It was going to cost us over a half million dollars just to bring the building up to code and then it was probably going to be another half million to lease the building for three years," said Drennen.
The PICC treats an average of 150 babies a year and saves the state more than $3 million.
"We just want to be able to keep our doors open, flood or not," said Drennen.
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