I live one of the snowiest city in the U.S. and all the hospitals here have emergency plans for just such events. Doctors, nurses, food service people and other staff are all prepared to stay there until they can be relieved or for the duration. I would find it hard to believe that any hospital would just not feed their patients for 24 hours or let an employee (your friend) go home. Something about this sounds fishy to me. If that's really the case, then you or your friend should be calling the local media right now, that's the kind of story they'd jump on.
