GALVESTON — Down a darkened hallway at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, administrators huddled around a conference table planning the return to normalcy.
It will take months before the medical branch can perform what were once routine procedures and weeks before the emergency room is functioning normally.
There was no water, sewer, gas or electricity Wednesday morning. No one was sure when those services would return.
Disaster Medical Assistant Teams from Connecticut flew in and sent most medical branch employees home. The teams can diagnose and start treatment on most conditions that come in. Once patients are stabilized, they’re driven or flown to any hospital with an open bed. Every building at the medical branch got more than 2 feet of water on bottom levels. Roofs peeled off and trees toppled.
Facilities administrator Mike Megria said he wouldn’t be surprised to find missing columns or benches when he had time to look around. It will be at least two weeks until the medical branch can become operational. It will take longer before doctors and nurses return.
During the storm, the medical branch’s emergency generator failed.
Still, officials accepted about 100 patients in the hours immediately before and after the storm. Some just needed their medications.
Crews brought in dry ice and refrigeration tanks, trying to preserve research specimens that doctors spent lifetimes working on.
“We’re very aware of the research needs,” Megria said. “Some of this research can’t be re-created. We don’t want to lose it.”
Other crews spent all day Tuesday pumping water out.
