Jefferson Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia evacuated, closed after power outage

Jefferson Methodist Hospital is temporarily closed after a burst pipe caused a power outage and evacuations Tuesday night in South Philadelphia.

Evacuations continued into Wednesday at the hospital on South Broad Street as patients were taken to nearby hospitals in the city.

Shortly before 11 a.m., the hospital said all patients have either been transferred to another facility or discharged.

"Jefferson staff are working around the clock with regulatory agencies to safely reopen the hospital as soon as possible," Jefferson said in a statement Wednesday morning. "Individuals seeking to locate their loved ones can call our information line at (215) 463-2031."

Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small told CBS News Philadelphia a pipe burst in the basement of the hospital, filling it with about 3 feet of water, which caused the outage and is the reason why the backup generator did not activate.

Jefferson said Wednesday morning that the cause of the outage is still being investigated, but "appears to be related to an external water source."

Sources tell CBS News Philadelphia the temperature inside the hospital's intensive care unit was 88 degrees during the outage. Because of the severity of the situation, that area of the hospital was evacuated first.

Small said patients were being kept cool by battery-powered air conditioning while they waited for transport.

Wednesday morning, Jefferson Health CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione said 120 patients were in the hospital at the time of the outage.

The hospital's emergency room is no longer open for walk-in patients, Cacchione said.

The outage happened as the city dealt with a second-straight day of record heat. On Tuesday, Philly recorded its hottest temperature ever in May at 98 degrees, which broke the previous record of 97 set in 1991.

No injuries or complications were reported when transferring patients.

The hospital is expected to remain closed for several weeks.