GALVESTON — State Rep. Craig Eiland and Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick on Thursday got a look at the damage at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
University officials are seeking $600 million in state and federal aid — $330 million for help with repairs and another $270 million to cover lost revenue for the time the medical branch is closed.
The legislators spent less than 30 minutes touring the hospital, sidestepping boxes of records, plastic trash bags of rotten insulation and giant plastic tubes spewing dry air. Hospital officials pointed to spots on the walls where floodwaters had been.
Michael Shriner, vice president for facilities and campus services, said the first floors of all medical branch buildings were inundated with floodwater, which was between 3 and 6 feet high in some places.
Crews spent 36 straight hours pumping water from the buildings. Some electrical systems were fried. Hospital waiting room furniture, kitchen appliances and pharmaceutical technology were destroyed in the flood, Shriner said.
Lawrence Revill, vice president of finance, said the hospital could be shuttered for 90 days.
Those estimates do not include money to help the medical branch rebuild the infrastructure or elevate any structures to prevent future flooding.
Craddick, a Midland Republican, said he and Eiland, a Galveston Democrat, were assessing the damage. Citing the medical branch’s role as a major hospital in the region, Craddick said everyone supported helping the institution recover.
Dr. David Callender, president of the medical branch, pointed to the Galveston National Laboratory as a model for future construction at the medical branch. Some wind-driven rain seeped in through the doors at the lab, but that was the extent of the flooding there.
