Dozens of babies and toddlers are safe, warm and alive thanks to the heroic efforts of the PICU and NICU staff at New York University Hospital.

Starting around 7 p.m. Monday night, water began to flood into the hospital’s basement and elevator shafts. The water reached 10 to 12 feet within 45 minutes and the power went out to the hospital.

Emergency generators immediately took over but two hours later the generators failed and only 10% of the hospital could be powered.

So the nurses and doctors of the NICU and the PICU did the only thing they could do: using battery powered backup systems, they took over 20 babies from the NICU and the dozen children from the PICU individually down 9 flights of stairs to waiting ambulances to be rushed to other hospitals.

Four of the newborns were on respirators that had to also be carried down the stairs using only flashlights to guide the staff. The respirators couldn’t go with them so nurses had to use bags to squeeze air into the baby’s lungs until they reached the ambulance.

“Everybody’s digging in and doing what they have to do,” Dr. Andrew Brotman, Senior VP told CNN.