My last few days in America were spent in New York City. On the coach south into the city, the driver announced over the intercom to be careful because Hurricane Joaquin was busy making itself a nuisance out in the Caribbean and nobody was quite sure where it was going to make landfall on the Eastern coast or whether it even would at all. The forecasters were predicting a hit anywhere from South Carolina up to Connecticut, and with NYC being right on the coast there was a chance the hurricane could come aground in the city. Luckily that scenario didn't materialise and the hurricane headed out into the Atlantic, but New York City was left with three days of gusting winds and heavy rains. Eventually the weather cleared up just in time for an afternoon explore.
And what an explore, hands down one of my favourite hospitals I have ever done. Situated not too far from NYC, it closed in 2012 due to the main laboratory failing a state inspection, resulting in the company being unable to run many vital tests. There were also various cases of fraud in their finances which contributed to the decision to shut the hospital down. Pretty much the only things they removed were the patients, the medications and most of the beds, leaving nearly everything else behind. For the first months it was closed, the hospital was fully powered up with everything working but one day a generator on a roof exploded, setting fire to a small part of the building and from then on the power was cut and the metal thieves started picking away at it.
The ground floor is pretty much ruined by the water the fire service used to put out the fire as well as metal thieves, however the corridors are fully illuminated by strings of work lights giving it a very odd feeling. Adding to the weirdness, we were on the 4th floor (one below the top floor) and me and one of my companions were stood by one of the stairwells. From above we both heard an enormous crash, one of the loudest noises I've ever heard in an abandoned building. After a minute or so of wondering what it was we ventured upstairs to check it out as we hadn't shot the top floor by that point, and as soon as we pushed the door into the corridor open we saw that that entire area of the top floor - the corridor, and all the rooms leading off it - was full of a cloud of thick, choking dust. Something collapsed, or fell over, or slammed shut with so much force it raised a huge amount of dust up off the floor. I stayed up there just long enough to grab a photo of the cloud of dust before heading back downstairs as there was no way we would be breathing in that dust. My theory was that a door on the roof slammed shut seriously hard, and the pressure difference caused all the dust to be raised into the air, but I simply don't know. It was a moment that will stay with me for a long time though!
I'll get on with the photos now...
Most of the patient rooms looked like this but in varying states of decay
This photo does the thickness of the dust cloud no justice.
A baby incubator was probably the most surprising thing left behind...
There were two X-ray machines left inside but both were in the most awkwardly small dark rooms imaginable.
As always, thanks for looking and more photos can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157659434167778
And what an explore, hands down one of my favourite hospitals I have ever done. Situated not too far from NYC, it closed in 2012 due to the main laboratory failing a state inspection, resulting in the company being unable to run many vital tests. There were also various cases of fraud in their finances which contributed to the decision to shut the hospital down. Pretty much the only things they removed were the patients, the medications and most of the beds, leaving nearly everything else behind. For the first months it was closed, the hospital was fully powered up with everything working but one day a generator on a roof exploded, setting fire to a small part of the building and from then on the power was cut and the metal thieves started picking away at it.
The ground floor is pretty much ruined by the water the fire service used to put out the fire as well as metal thieves, however the corridors are fully illuminated by strings of work lights giving it a very odd feeling. Adding to the weirdness, we were on the 4th floor (one below the top floor) and me and one of my companions were stood by one of the stairwells. From above we both heard an enormous crash, one of the loudest noises I've ever heard in an abandoned building. After a minute or so of wondering what it was we ventured upstairs to check it out as we hadn't shot the top floor by that point, and as soon as we pushed the door into the corridor open we saw that that entire area of the top floor - the corridor, and all the rooms leading off it - was full of a cloud of thick, choking dust. Something collapsed, or fell over, or slammed shut with so much force it raised a huge amount of dust up off the floor. I stayed up there just long enough to grab a photo of the cloud of dust before heading back downstairs as there was no way we would be breathing in that dust. My theory was that a door on the roof slammed shut seriously hard, and the pressure difference caused all the dust to be raised into the air, but I simply don't know. It was a moment that will stay with me for a long time though!
I'll get on with the photos now...
Most of the patient rooms looked like this but in varying states of decay
This photo does the thickness of the dust cloud no justice.
A baby incubator was probably the most surprising thing left behind...
There were two X-ray machines left inside but both were in the most awkwardly small dark rooms imaginable.
As always, thanks for looking and more photos can be found here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157659434167778
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