Homes have been damaged, and cars ruined, but the most important-the people- need care before it gets too late.

“What happens is the hospitals, when they're making decisions about evacuating, is they have to make the judgment for themselves as to weighing the risk of transferring a patient versus the risk of keeping them in the hospital if they know they may be in a projected path of a major hurricane,” said Alan Levin of the Department of Health and Hospitals.

Over 500 ambulances from all over the nation are in southern Louisiana, and locally, to help transfer patients. So far, ambulances from southern Oklahoma are in Alexandria helping while keeping safe.

“They advised us yesterday about 9 a.m., before the storm came in, that as long as the winds were above 50 MPH they would not send anybody out for safety reasons,” said Kenny Power, Director of Johnston Co. Ambulance. “They had a report that they had an ambulance coming back from New Orleans get blown over, but they brought everybody back in.”

The local ambulances have transferred half a dozen patients, and might be transferring more elsewhere soon.

“Bryan County has been contacted by AMR to possibly transfer from this location to South Carolina,” said Power.

Hannah is the next storm that ambulances are already being called for as they handle Gustav and the aftermath.

More than 12 ambulances from Bryan and Johnston County have responded to Gustav. There are more than 500 ambulances from across the country on standby in Alexandria, Louisiana which is a new record for the nation.