Adios, Allison: A Look Back at the Tropical Storm that Took Houston by Surprise

The flood that surprised Houston and paralyzed it for one nightmarish weekend in June seemed so unlikely.

Everyone thought Tropical Storm Allison had come and gone. The storm had reached landfall near Galveston on June 5 and over the next three days, pounded southeast Texas with up to 12 inches of rain. But by Friday, June 8, the skies were clearing and only a few bands of rain showers were expected at the tail end of the storm.

About 6 p.m. that Friday, during Houston's rush hour, the showers began. The rain fell steadily, filling streets and underground parking garages. Cars stalled on roads and freeways. By about 11 p.m., the bands of showers that had been traveling north began to move southward back over Houston and linger. That's when the clouds dropped their payload.

Between midnight and 3 a.m. the rainfall gauge at Rice University, which is near the Texas Medical Center, unofficially recorded about 10.4 inches of rain. Some rain gauges around town reported 25 inches of rain in 10 hours. All told, Allison dumped about 3 feet of water on the city.

That night at The University of Texas Medical School building, floodwaters swamped the building to a level of about 22 feet. Floodwater filled the basement and part of the first floor. An estimated 10 million gallons of water filled the million-square-foot building.

Power outages and other flood-related problems caused eight area hospitals to declare internal disasters, including Memorial Hermann Hospital, the teaching hospital affiliated with UT-Houston Medical School.

Early Saturday morning, Memorial Hermann Hospital lost power, and the hospital started evacuating patients needing full-service care. UT-Houston physicians, medical students and nurses, some working as much as 32 hours straight, evacuated patients. Some of them hand-carried critically ill patients in wheelchairs or gurneys down 12 flights of stairs by flashlight. Others kept patients on respirators alive using hand-pumped respirators that they operated for hours on end until patients could be transferred to another hospital.

On Saturday morning, many UT-Houston medical professionals and students who weren't on duty at the hospital waded through floodwaters to volunteer their help and evacuate patients.

"The volunteerism and the altruism of this community is just amazing," said. Dr. James "Red" Duke, professor of surgery at UT-Houston and chief trauma surgeon at Memorial Hermann. "I get teary when I think about it."

On Saturday, Memorial Hermann Hospital closed for the first time in its 76-year history. UT-Houston physicians, nurses and students successfully transferred some 540 patients, including 150 children, from the hospital to outlying hospitals.

"It was like out of a movie," said Jason Carter, a second-year UT-Houston Medical School student who helped evacuate patients. "It was an awesome effort, and very well organized."

"A large number of doctors, nurses and staff worked through the weekend to keep people alive," said Dr. James T. Willerson, UT-Houston president. "Whatever our losses prove to be, it all would have been much worse without them. We need to find a way to honor them at some future date."

Over the weekend, physicians, researchers and students were allowed on a limited basis to enter the building to salvage and retrieve as many of their research projects as possible. Some were there to add dry ice to freezers in an attempt to keep cell and tissue samples frozen.

Damage to the university's research effort is great, said Dr. George Stancel, interim executive vice president for research affairs and dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Because of the flood and power outages, many researchers and doctoral candidates have lost years' worth of work. They are discouraged, but they will recover from this disaster because their research is a calling, said Dr. Stancel.

"They're here because they want to cure cancer. They want to cure heart disease. They want to prevent strokes," Dr. Stancel said. "These are people who feel this is a calling, and they may be down for a little while, but knowing these people, I'm convinced many of them will come back. They'll get right back in those labs and work harder than ever."

By Monday morning, June 11, workers were pumping water from the Medical School building, and on Tuesday most of the water in the basement had been pumped out. The university's Internet access and e-mail were mostly restored by Monday afternoon, as the storm had shut down those systems on Friday night. By Thursday, June 14, the university's voicemail was restored, and cleanup crews started removing computer hard drives from the hard-hit basement, in hopes of salvaging the data they contained.

Following is a timeline of Tropical Storm Allison, as it affected the UT-Houston Medical School:

Tuesday, June 5: Tropical Storm Allison hits landfall near Galveston.

Tuesday, June 5 through Thursday, June 7: 12 inches of rain fall on the Houston area, causing flooding in some parts of the city.

Friday, June 8, 6 p.m.: Showers at the tail end of Allison begin to pour, making Houston's rush hour on roads and freeways difficult.

Friday, June 8, 11 p.m.: Showers stall over the Houston area and the deluge begins. From midnight to 3 a.m. the Rice University rainfall gauge unofficially records about 10.4 inches of rainfall. Ultimately, Allison dumps up to 3 feet of rain over the Houston area. The bayous overflow their banks and many streets and freeways turn into lakes.

Saturday, June 9: UT-Houston physicians, nurses and students evacuate 540 patients from Memorial Hermann Hospital. Some UT-Houston researchers go to the medical school building to retrieve or restore research projects.

Sunday, June 10: UT-Houston Medical school and facilities management staffs organize reclamation and cleanup efforts.

Monday, June 11: Pumps begin pumping 10 million gallons of water from the basement of the Medical School building. All other UT-Health Science Center schools and buildings are operational, but Internet service and e-mail are down most of the day. Voicemail is not working. Some UT-Houston medical clinics are temporarily moved to new locations to accommodate patients.

Tuesday, June 12: Cleanup continues.

Thursday, June 14: Voicemail is restored. Workers gain access to the basement of the Medical School.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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