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Phoenix VA cleaning up after monsoon storms

Posted at 6:51 PM, Sep 16, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-16 21:51:19-04

The Phoenix Veteran Affairs Hospital is still drying out after storms rolled through the Valley earlier this week.

About 50 rooms in the facility were damaged after storms brought heavy rain and wind gusts on Monday night.

"We were hit pretty hard," said Don Taylor, the facility's acting associate director. "It's been challenging to say the least."

Taylor said water leaked through window seals which damaged the walls. Adding insult to injury, the hospital is still cleaning up and making repairs after a powerful storm hit two weeks ago.

"Not all the water damage is visible or even detectable," he said. "It's certainly not visible to us so we are actually testing each of the walls for percentage of water saturation."

The hospital set up plastic barriers to separate the wet walls from the rest of the damaged rooms. This is done for health reasons to allow the wet walls to properly dry out, said Taylor.

The hospital's emergency rooms remains on diversion while crews continue clean up efforts. Veterans will still be able to receive immediate care, they will just be taken to another healthcare facility.

Taylor said he expects the clean up to be completed in 10 days.