In a celebration fit for Coney Island, Nathan's hot dogs and all, a groundbreaking for a new state of the art building at Coney Island Hospital took place on Thursday.

The building was designed to withstand the kind of punishment that Hurricane Sandy dealt the hospital nearly six and a half years ago.

"As water rushed down Ocean Parkway headed toward our hospital, it knocked out services for months, leaving our community members without the care they so desperately needed and deserved," said William A. Brown, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island .

The construction is part of a $922 million plan to repair hurricane damage and protect the city-owned and operated hospital from future storms.

The new building will rise 11 stories on the north end of the campus. It will include an elevated emergency room and vital medical services located high enough to withstand the flooding projected to occur in a once-in-500 year storm.

(Pictured above: a rendering of what the new, high-tech building will look like once it's completed.)

The project includes a four-foot concrete flood wall surrounding the entire hospital perimeter.

Other renovations include private patient rooms, eight new operating rooms, a labor and delivery suite and a clinical lab equipped with advanced technology. The project is coming from the city, state and federal governments.

"The wealthiest country in the history of the world, everyone should have access to high quality affordable, first-rate healthcare," said Representative Hakim Jeffries.

The power, heating, cooling and water systems are all designed to withstand flooding. The new building is set to be completed by 2022, and hopefully, before the next big superstorm.

Hospital services will remain uninterrupted during the construction and renovations to other parts of the campus will be complete in 2023.