VOLUME 30, ISSUE 1
Hurricane Harvey Vignettes
Keith B. Warner, MD UT Houston
Looking at the sky, you’d think it was the 4th of July all over again. Lightning flashing every few seconds, thunder shaking the windows in the house. Our next-door neighbor’s home had just been hit by lightning and the fire department was pulling up in front of their home. Minutes before, a tornado had ripped the facade off of a local business down the street. In the midst of all the commotion, my wife asked that I go to the attic to ensure that our roof was literally ‘weathering the storm’ well. Upon climbing the attic stairs, I knew we had a problem. The best way to describe the roof at that point would be ‘well-fenestrated’. There were multiple streams of water coming into the house and each gust of wind seemed to open a new path for the water to follow. Despite my best efforts at mobilizing every spare Tupperware we had to catch the incoming rain, the damage to the roof outside and the home inside had largely been done. Insurance adjusters would decide that the roof was a total loss. The insurance estimate then delivered a seemingly more painful blow as we were informed that our deductible wasn’t 5% of the damage (as we had previously assumed), rather, it was 5% of our home value! Being a family of 6 with a little one on the way in the next couple of months all while living on a resident’s salary made this new financial mountain before us seem insurmountable. Unbeknownst to me, multiple people were working to mobilize assistance for those residents that had been adversely affected by the hurricane. The financial aid we received provided a means by which we could replace our damaged roof and maintain solvency. Our family couldn’t be more grateful for the generosity of the Anesthesia Foundation and their determination to help the most junior members of our specialty!
The combination of having a daughter born prematurely (requiring a 10 day NICU stay) just ahead of Hurricane Harvey making landfall and stalling over Houston and flooding our home has been the most challenging series of life events my family and I have ever faced. We did our best to prepare.
We broke out the flashlights and filled pots and bottles with as much water as we could. The first floor of our townhouse flooded. Fortunately, the nursery and master bedroom were on the second floor. We lost power three days after our daughter arrived home from the NICU; quite the unexpected new parent bundle; preemie baby and a hurricane. For 40 hours we lived upstairs without electricity or running water. I set up a decontamination zone, bottle washing station, and a makeshift kitchen. We washed our bodies with baby wipes, foaming soap, and hand sanitizer. We only had diapers and formula to last about 5 days.
As the rain continued, our driveway became a stream connecting to the river that was our street. The hours of sunlight became filled with the unfamiliar sounds of helicopters and by the next morning motorboats. Monday morning we heard a more familiar sound, the zoom of a vehicle speeding down our street. We had a window of opportunity and took it. Packing up the baby bag and as many changes of clothes as possible, we braved the drive hoping to find a route clear of water. We made it to a friend’s home and stayed for 10 days before securing a garage apartment. My wife was recovering from a c-section and battling postpartum depression and anxiety; unable to help with relocation. As we moved into our new home we began piecing our lives back together. It was quite costly to have a child and in one day become a single income household on a resident’s salary. Utilities, dual rents, leasing applications, restocking groceries, newborn essentials, and fuel for our vehicles became a great burden. The recovery process was both emotionally and financially taxing.
The Anesthesia Foundation grant helped infuse hope into our recovery effort and gave some much-needed “breathing room”. I am thankful to the TSA for the contribution towards this recovery effort. God protected and blessed us through it all and placed us back on solid ground. The outpouring of support and your contribution makes you all a part of my daughter’s story. I am thankful to my program for their spirited advocacy and to the faculty who lent their own dollars in support.
I am a Hurricane Harvey survivor, first-time father, and also an optimistic anesthesiologist-in-training. Hurricane Harvey is over but the recovery process, on many levels, is still on going. Thank you again for your generosity and for giving me the opportunity to share our story.
Antoine C. Scott, MD
UT Houston
McGovern Medical School
