Hospitals on the Oregon Coast are gearing up for an unusual baby boom. They're expecting more than double the normal number of deliveries this month.

KGW file photo

So what's causing this baby rush? To find the answer you have to go back about 9 months.

Last December a storm packing hurricane-force winds devastated the north Oregon Coast. Torrential rains flood neighborhoods. Downed-trees closed highways. And power was knocked out for nearly a week. Coastal residents are all but *cut-off from the rest of the world.

Danielle Mendenhall and Josh Wolf found themselves stranded. "I couldn't call anyone my cell phone was dead. All the land lines were down," said Mendenhall. "It was pretty harsh... pretty harsh," added Wolf.

Background: Dec. 2004 storm

But out of all that bad came something very good. Danielle and Josh are expecting there first baby together. It’s due in just 3 weeks.

But they’re not the only ones.

"Every time I go into a different store there’s somebody pregnant. It’s unusual," explained Mendenhall.

Nine months after the storm that left so many stranded the Providence Seaside Hospital is gearing up for a never-before-seen baby boom.

"I think they were trying to entertain themselves with no electricity and trying to keep warm," said Tonya Case, the OB Supervisor.

Normally, the hospital delivers two-to-three babies a week. This month and early next it’s gearing up for up to 25 deliveries.

With only two rooms in the maternity ward, the hospital is having to make some special arrangements and setting up overflow rooms in different areas of the hospital.

"We’re going to do a shuffle, so after they deliver they're going to go to the med-surgery floor if we needed the added room, explained Case."

Hospital staff says the baby rush should start any time now. The rooms are stocked and ready and the nursing staff is prepared. They’re just enjoying the calm, so to speak, before the storm