The Race to Build New Hospitals

Todd Semonite was sent to Iraq 17 years ago to work on getting the power back on across the country. Three years ago, after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, he had to figure out how to get thousands of power poles onto the island and across mountains to get the grid lit up again. Now, after 41 years in the Army, the past four spent in charge of the Army Corps of Engineers, his focus is all over the United States. As COVID-19 cases have mounted, states have been running out of hospital beds, and Semonite’s Corps has stepped in with a solution. At sites across the country, the Corps is converting hotels, dorm rooms, and massive convention centers into makeshift hospitals. The first was in New York’s Javits Center—where Hillary Clinton expected to have her presidential victory party a lifetime ago. It’s now a 2,000-bed hospital. The Corps is building or has built close to 30 similar projects around the country, in Illinois and New Mexico, Colorado and California, with more on the way.

Semonite spoke to me recently in between trips to scope out new sites and consult with governors, mayors, and the president. We discussed how his career took him from power plants in Baghdad to hospital