TMC PULSE

t m c » p u l s e | j u ly 2 0 1 4 4 A Watchful Eye on the Medical Center T ropical Storm Allison made landfall on June 5, 2001, dropping over 15 inches of rain in three hours in the city of Houston and earning the distinc- tion of one of the most intense rainfalls to ever hit an urban area in the United States. Severe storms and hurricanes— including Ike and Rita—have hit the region since, but none have impacted the Texas Medical Center as severely as Allison. The most damage from Allison came from flooding in the tunnels and basements connecting several member institutions, although others were also hit with costly infrastructure damage and loss of invaluable research equipment, animals and samples. Baylor College of Medicine alone lost 60,000 tumor samples, collected over decades. It was a costly and temporarily crip- pling storm, but left the Texas Medical Center member institutions united in their resolve to be better prepared in the future. The lessons learned from Allison—during which FEMA reported a total rainfall of roughly 32 trillion gallons—are evident in the storm monitoring and flood mitigation measures in place across the medical center today. Among other improvements and measures, the Texas Medical Center adopted a Hazard Mitigation Plan in 2003, designed to improve the campus infrastructure to protect at the 500-year flood level, the widely accepted rating for critical facilities like those within the medical center. Also included in post-Allison efforts were improvements to the existing Flood Alert System (FAS), initially developed by Rice University at the request of TMC leadership in 1997. The system is one of the few radar-based flood warning systems in the United States today, and runs real-time models of rainfall for the Texas Medical Center. "I have staff and students that watch it literally 24/7," said Philip Bedient, Ph.D., Herman Brown Professor of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, and the brains behind the FAS. "Allison occurred between midnight and 3 a.m. But the alert sys- tem was all automatic, and it actually worked well for as long as the power was on. The power lasted until 2 a.m., but because of the system, we knew by 1 a.m. that the medical center was going to get absolutely hammered. But there was nothing they could do at that point." The system includes two mounted cameras, directed at Brays Bayou. "Those are the only cameras in all of Houston that look down at a Bayou," said Bedient. "But the medical center really needs to know if they are about to get flooded, because they need to man- age operations, surgeries, personnel… all of it. So they have a huge responsi- bility in the event of a major flood." The stakes are much higher for hospitals during a natural disaster than they might be for non-essential infra- structure. The institutions within the Texas Medical Center are keenly aware of their dual responsibility to the com- munity—to protect their facilities and current patients, while also preparing to meet the need for emergency medical services that will undoubtedly arise during severe weather. B y A m a n d a D . S t e i n The Texas Medical Center operations center serves as a hub for the monitoring of weather and water levels in Brays Bayou. (Credit: Scott Dalton) THE CITY OF HOUSTON WAS HIT HARD BY TROPICAL STORM ALLISON IN 2001 AND HURRICANE IKE IN 2008. TODAY, SAFETY OFFICERS AND RESEARCHERS SHARE WHAT THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER HAS LEARNED FROM STORMS PAST, AND HOW THE COMMUNITY IS POSITIONED TO HANDLE THOSE IN THE FUTURE.

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