Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton devastated the southeastern United States in late September and early October 2024, killing more than 250 people and causing an estimated $113 billion in damages. But beyond the immediate destruction lay another crisis: widespread power outages that forced healthcare safety-net providers to close their doors when vulnerable patients needed them most.
Direct Relief surveyed federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and free & charitable clinics across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to understand how power loss from natural disasters disrupts healthcare for the nation’s most vulnerable populations. This three-part report reveals the hidden health consequences of climate disasters—and the urgent need for resilient healthcare infrastructure.
Top findings among 80 survey respondents
- Power outages forced the closure of one or more clinical sites at 54% of responding healthcare safety-net organizations (FQHCs or free & charitable clinics)*
- Nearly 28,000 patient visits across 44 safety-net organizations were canceled, with a median of 50 missed visits among those 44 organizations
- 50 organizations lost power at one or more sites, with a median outage of 47 hours
- 23 organizations lost revenue totaling $12.9 million
- 19 organizations lost temperature-sensitive medicine or vaccines
- 25 organizations suffered infrastructure damage
- 50% of organizations had no backup power at any site; only 12% had backup power at all sites
- Among the 44 organizations reporting one or more patients relying on electricity-powered medical devices, the median was 20 patients
- 38% of organizations reported an increase in patients seeking care after the storms
Direct Relief would like to thank the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, and the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, which helped us conduct the study.
*Note on terminology: In this report, “health clinic” or “clinic” refers to two main types of safety-net healthcare providers in the United States: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), often called community health centers, and Free & Charitable Clinics and Pharmacies (FCCs). The FQHC category also includes community health centers designated as “look-alikes” — providers that meet all Health Center Program standards but do not receive Section 330 grant funding. Many of these organizations operate more than one clinic site.
