VOLUME 30, ISSUE 1
Hurricane Harvey Vignettes
Weathering the Storm
As luck would have it, I was the anesthesiologist on trauma call at Ben Taub General Hospital on the night of August 26, 2017. Although Hurricane Harvey had made landfall the night before near Corpus Christi, the predictions all week had been for it to stall and gradually drift towards the Houston area over the next 3-5 days. The actual forecasts expected rain totals in the 30-50 inch range for most of the greater Houston area during those 5 days. Considering the flood damage that Tropical Storm Allison had inflicted in the Houston area in 2001 with around 25-30 inches of rain, most of us were extremely concerned.
I came to work that afternoon after what had been a mostly cloudy but not rainy day. I think that gave a false sense of relief to many in Houston. The hospital staff was actually working with a “ride-out team” as of Friday afternoon, which they do when storms are predicted to hit the area. I went to work and we did cases as we usually do on weekends, catching up on inpatients needing surgery. I remember the heavy rain beginning during the Texans-Saints preseason football game. And then it got heavier. And then it didn’t stop.
I kept track of the heavy rain bands on the news. The forecast was that there was no end to it any time soon. I kept in touch with my wife who had already described our street flooding with water rising. I live a couple of blocks from Brays Bayou, so my house was built elevated above the 500-year flood plain. However, many of my neighbors hadn’t flooded since Allison and lived in one-story homes.
Jaime Ortiz, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
Director of Regional Anesthesia
Co-Dir. Acute Pain Mgmt. Service
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
View from my 4th floor window at Ben Taub with Brays Bayou over its banks on August 27, 2017
View from my home that Sunday morning.
We finished our last scheduled case around 230 am, at which time the city was already flooding and the rain just kept coming. I went to bed expecting not to be relieved the next morning. I had brought extra food and clothes with me and parked my car on the 6th floor of the Ben Taub parking garage in preparation for this flood. At around 530 am the OR nurse manager called me to let me know that the Ben Taub basement was flooding, likely due to some broken pipes from the back pressure caused by the flooded streets. This meant that central supply, pharmacy, and the cafeteria were affected and that equipment and supplies were being transported to higher floors. A quick look outside the window showed that Brays Bayou had left its banks and that we were surrounded by water. And the rain kept coming.
Around 6 am I got in touch with my family, and my wife described very high water that had already entered our neighbors’ homes. She and my mother were about to rescue our elderly neighbors who had 3 feet of water inside their house when they woke up. She got in waist deep water and walked them safely to our house, where they stayed until the waters receded Monday morning.
Needless to say, the hospital was closed for new business indefinitely; and the OR would only be used for absolute emergency surgery only. We were called to assist with airway management of a couple of critically ill patients, but otherwise, it was a clinically quiet day for us. We spent most of the day trying to keep in touch with our friends and families and keeping track of the news around the city and the forecast. Thankfully, we never lost power and were able to keep in touch with others. I also got used to looking at the Harris County Flood District Brays Bayou gauge. Here is some nice summary data from that day. The bayou did peak higher than with Allison in 2001.
At some point late that afternoon the water started to recede, even though it never stopped raining. From my window I could see the high water mark and was hopeful. The rest of the evening was uneventful for us. We were under orders not to use any supplies unless absolutely necessary, which included operating room equipment. The next morning, a couple of colleagues were able to safely come to the hospital to relieve me and my team. However, the majority of Houstonians were stuck in their home unable to exit due to flood waters. I was officially relieved that morning at 8 am. However, my neighborhood was still flooded until around 11 am. One of our cars was flooded in our garage at home, so I decided to leave my car safely at the Ben Taub garage. We still had 2-3 more days of rain in the forecast.
Flood water receded in the medical center and in my neighborhood that Monday afternoon. However, many parts of the area were not so lucky. A lot of people in Houston and many parts of southeast Texas were directly affected by this natural disaster. A large number of families in my neighborhood remain displaced as they ponder whether to rebuild or move to other parts of the city. Ben Taub was able to reopen fully later that week. We were lucky. Several hospitals and businesses in the area have yet to recover. This natural disaster changed Houston forever.
