FROM THE PRESIDENT

Six months ago, Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston with a vengeance, causing billions of dollars in damage, and many man-hours of cleanup. Almost all institutions on the 750-acre Texas Medical Center campus were affected.

Looking back, one of the key things to remember is that nobody in the Texas Medical Center lost a life due to flooding in the aftermath of the storm. The staff members at the institutions made everything happen right, and the facilities people were on alert when the storm first hit town June 5. These people worked with multimodal plans to carry out an emergency recovery process that began early, even as water was still on site.

As soon as they could, state and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials arrived to evaluate the damage that had been done. Now, six months later, the issue of flood mitigation must be addressed. It is important that we put these mitigation plans into action as soon as possible, because, with the amount of damage that was done, we don’t want to go through this again. We must take a proactive stance toward flooding issues, because this type of event can and will happen again. Remember – flooding is not a one-organization problem. It’s a community issue.

By implementing mitigation plans, the risk of further damage – should an event like this occur again – could be potentially reduced. Mitigation also would increase potential for insurability; reduce social, emotional and economic disruptions to TMC institutions; and, most importantly, allow for operation during storm events.

To address flooding in the TMC area, four topic areas have been identified: hydrology and flood control, utilities, access and transportation, and emergency management. To adequately address improvements to each, we must seek input from national professionals, such as those from FEMA and the state; develop innovative mitigation solutions; and continue to focus on the problem globally.

It is crucial to the rebuilding and mitigation processes that Texas Medical Center institutions develop a "corporate memory," because as we all know, people come and go, but the problem will not. We need to cultivate a solid corporate communications process, and make sure that need-to-know information stays somewhere within the organization, should key players move on.

It is also critical to the mitigation process for TMC member institutions to start implementing flood protection measures, reprogram critical facilities to higher locations, relocate facilities switchgear, and develop institutional emergency management command teams.

The Texas Medical Center has been working with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, the firm that helped draft the TMC’s master plan in 1999, to propose some mitigation matters that will benefit the entire TMC area and surrounding communities. These include modification of the Harris Gully outflow system, reviewing the possibility of using parking lots for water detention, investigating the "sheet flow" route, examining the possibility of designating emergency access routes, improving the redundancy of the utilities system, developing the TMC Command Center, and developing a second-generation flood-alert system.

By implementing these steps, we are better equipped to "weather" another storm, should it happen, and be prepared to cope with the consequences.

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/12_01_01/page_20.html