SAN ANTONIO — Officials at Metropolitan Methodist Hospital say air conditioning has been restored after one of the facility's systems experienced an unexpected outage Monday, when highs were expected to reach 100 degrees.
Multiple viewers reached out to KENS 5 to report warm conditions inside the hospital. A spokesperson confirmed the outage with one system to KENS 5, saying some areas of the building were "experiencing higher than usual temperatures."
Methodist Healthcare went on say that they "have implemented additional measures to ensure everyone in our facility remains safe and comfortable."
A picture taken by a KENS 5 viewer shows what appears to be a temporary air conditioning system in one of the hospital's hallways.
This viewer, who wished to remain anonymous, told KENS 5 that at one point they noticed the temperature in the emergency room got up to 80 degrees.
“The A/C hadn’t been working since last night," the visitor said. "You could see portable fans everywhere… it was hot, humid and smelled musty."
An official with the hospital told KENS 5 they had other hospitals assisting them to ensure patients were cared for and had enough water while the air conditioning was out.
"They [hospital employees] did help in the rooms and some of the rooms didn’t feel as hot as it did in the waiting room but it was still hot," the visitor said.
The hospital declined to say how long air conditioning was out.
Temperatures in central San Antonio were expected to be above average and even approach record heat for Memorial Day. The heat index was expected to be as high as 111 and an Excessive Heat Warning is in effect until 8 p.m. Monday.
See the full statement from Methodist Healthcare below:
"One of our air conditioning systems had an unexpected outage. As a result, certain areas of our hospital were experiencing higher than usual temperatures. We want to assure everyone that the safety and comfort of our patients, their families, and our staff remain our top priority. We are actively working to resolve this issue as swiftly as possible and have implemented additional measures to ensure that everyone in our facility remains safe and comfortable during this time. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work diligently to restore our systems to full functionality."