--- title: When Hurricane Harvey Hit, Texas Medical Center Was REady description: When a hurricane hits Houston, it also threatens some of the world's leading medical care. The Texas Medical Center was ready for Harvey. canonical: https://time.com/4919261/hurricane-harvey-houston-texas-medical-center/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-28T20:12:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:31:36.469Z article:section: Health og:title: What Happens When a Hurricane Hits a Hospital og:description: Hurricane Harvey came to Houston, and the Texas Medical Center was ready og:url: https://time.com/4919261/hurricane-harvey-houston-texas-medical-center/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9baf25f28b4d198f/6988db93fb4eac391a8937d5/texas-hurricane-harvey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2405 og:image:height: 1353 og:image:alt: texas-hurricane-harvey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Happens When a Hurricane Hits a Hospital twitter:description: Hurricane Harvey came to Houston, and the Texas Medical Center was ready twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9baf25f28b4d198f/6988db93fb4eac391a8937d5/texas-hurricane-harvey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 02:33 video:published: 2017-08-24 section: climate topics: Hurricane Harvey, coastal flooding, rainfall forecast, storm tracking, federal response, presidential briefing, disaster preparedness genre: news, explainer tones: urgent, informative, measured emotions: concern (medium), urgency (medium), reassurance (low) sentiment: negative audience: general news readers, residents in storm-affected regions, people following the Hurricane Harvey response, policy observers people: the President content_suitability: disasters [00:00-02:33] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # What Happens When a Hurricane Hits a Hospital > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0cf1a616-898a-46f5-a0a6-3a798e163ca9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: What to Know About Hurricane Harvey [Watch (HLS stream): What to Know About Hurricane Harvey](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1aErvP9B.m3u8) (2:33)  _Published 2017-08-24. A pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston and a levee in a suburban subdivision began overflowing Tuesday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey that have crippled the area after five consecutive days of rain._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary The video covers the flooding threat from Hurricane Harvey, noting that coastal flooding is expected regardless of the storm's track and that rainfall forecasts call for 12 to 15 inches, with up to 20 inches in some isolated areas. It states that the President has been briefed and will keep watch on the storm and stands ready to provide resources. The transcript is brief and contains only music and short statements, with no interviews or on-the-ground footage described. ## Key points - Coastal flooding is expected regardless of the storm's track. (00:27) - The forecast calls for anywhere between 12 to 15 inches of rain for an entire region. (00:39) - Some isolated areas could receive as much as 20 inches of rain. (00:43) - The President has been briefed on the storm and will continue to be updated. (01:03) - The President is very aware of the storm and will keep a very watchful eye on it. (01:05) - The President stands ready to provide resources if needed as the storm progresses. (01:09) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:27] Opening music and introduction. Music plays before the first substantive statement about the storm. - [00:27 to 00:39] Expected coastal flooding. The speaker says coastal flooding will occur regardless of the storm's track. - [00:39 to 01:03] Rainfall forecast for the region. The current forecast projects 12 to 15 inches of rain, with up to 20 inches in isolated areas. - [01:03 to 02:33] Presidential briefing and federal readiness. The President has been briefed, is monitoring the storm, and stands ready to provide resources. ## Key quotes - [00:27] Unknown speaker: "We do know regardless of the storm's track that we're gonna have coastal flooding." - [00:39] Unknown speaker: "The forecast currently calls for anywhere between 12 to 15 inches to as high as 20 in some isolated areas." - [01:03] Unknown speaker: "The President has been briefed and will continue to be updated." - [01:09] Unknown speaker: "and stands ready to provide resources if needed." ## Questions this video answers - Will coastal flooding occur regardless of where the storm goes? [00:27] - How much rain is the forecast calling for? [00:39] - Has the President been briefed on the storm? [01:03] - Is the federal government prepared to provide resources if needed? [01:09] ## Content suitability - disasters [00:00-02:33]: Video concerns a hurricane and expected flooding affecting a large region.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 28, 2017 8:12 PM UTC A pair of 70-year-old reservoir dams that protect downtown Houston and a levee in a suburban subdivision began overflowing Tuesday, adding to the rising floodwaters from Harvey that have crippled the area after five consecutive days of rain.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Aug 28, 2017 8:12 PM UTC When [a hurricane hits Houston](http://time.com/4917530/hurricane-harvey-pictures/), it also threatens some of the world’s leading medical care. South Texas has been enduring the worst storm to hit the U.S. in years in [Hurricane Harvey](http://time.com/4918226/hurricane-harvey-rescuers-floods-houston/), with flooded streets expected to persist for days. With more than 10 million patient visits each year, and more than a dozen hospitals and medical facilities, the Texas Medical Center (TMC) in the heart of Houston is the largest medical complex in the world. The largest children’s hospital, as well as the largest cancer hospital, are also housed in the city. As Harvey gathered steam before making landfall late Friday night, the more than 106,000 TMC employees were prepared, but no one could have predicted the sheer volume of water that would inundate the city. The lobby of MD Anderson Cancer Center resembled a wading pool, and some of TMC’s facilities effectively ended up in a moat, surrounded by water that prevented anyone from getting in or out. > [](https://twitter.com/TXMedCenter/status/902231649814970369) But for the patients and staff inside, it was pretty much business as usual. Most of the TMC hospitals adopted a shelter-in-place strategy, which meant they called in staff prior to the storm and divided them into shifts of working and rest, on the premises, so they wouldn’t have to leave the hospital. Previous experience from storms suggested this was the best strategy; evacuating patients is a tricky process, since sometimes the evacuation procedure can be more medically dangerous if traffic jams out of a vulnerable area mean people will be stuck in ambulances or makeshift mobile care units for hours on end. **Read more:** [How you can help the victims of Hurricane Harvey](http://time.com/money/4917667/how-to-help-hurricane-harvey-victims/) Many hospitals in the area cancelled elective surgeries and non-essential appointments, in an effort to conserve supplies and resources. “The main reason for that is we want to be sure we have enough anesthesia support, and nursing support to continue to do surgeries,” said Tom Flanagan, vice president of emergency management at Memorial Hermann Health System, which is located in the TMC complex. Other priorities are patients who need chemotherapy treatments or dialysis, which need to be given at designated times to be most effective. Those patients were contacted one by one to ensure that they would be in the hospital before the storm hit, able to come to the hospital after the storm passed, or to find another facility for their treatments. At Texas Children’s Hospital, staff took turns on 12 hour shifts beginning Friday night to care for the 600 patients across three facilities. Doctors also called in women with high risk pregnancies who were due to give birth imminently as a precaution, and housed them in the Marriott next door to the main campus so they could be at the hospital quickly when their labor began. That meant their babies would also have access to the neonatal ICU if they needed it, rather than risking a dangerous ride through the storm to get to the hospital. “We assessed every patient, every pregnant mom, knowing that if they delivered and were unable to get to us, it would be devastating,” said Cris Daskevich, senior vice president at Texas Children’s. Learning lessons from previous hurricanes and tropical storms Katrina (2005), Rita (2005) and Allison (2001), all of which deluged Houston with floodwater and cut off patients from needed medical care, the TMC facilities constructed so-called submarine doors to protect their basement floors from incoming water. On Sunday, Texas Children’s and Memorial Hermann Hospital closed theirs, which helped to keep the facilities dry. **Read more:** [The Story Behind the Photo of Nursing Home Residents Trapped by Hurricane Harvey](http://time.com/4917743/la-vita-bella-nursing-home-dickinson-texas-photo/) But while the hospitals were relatively dry, they were surrounded by water, and emergency personnel and staff could not reach the facilities for several hours at the peak of the storm on Saturday and Sunday. “We were on stand by and waiting so that when the roads were clear, we were ready to receive patients again,” Daskevich said. During the storm itself, Flanagan said, there weren’t many emergencies. “We don’t usually see a lot of injuries or emergencies during the height of the storm,” he said. “But right after the storm passes, when people are allowed to go back and assess the damage, we start seeing storm-related injuries.” ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:10] [ MUSIC ] We [00:27] do know regardless of the storm's track that we're gonna [00:31] have coastal flooding. [ MUSIC ] [00:39] The forecast currently calls for anywhere between 12 to 15 [00:43] inches to as high as 20 in some isolated areas. for an [00:46] entire region. [ MUSIC ] [01:03] The President has been briefed and will continue to be [01:05] updated. As the storm progresses, and certainly something [01:09] he's very aware of and will keep a very watchful eye on, [01:12] and stands ready to provide resources if needed. 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