Galveston Update

Dear friends,
Thank you so much for the outpouring of concern and sympathy. I feel truly blessed to have such good friends. Here is the latest news from Galveston.

From a general standpoint:
80% of the island is damaged. UTMB is not seeing patients of any type at this point. DMAT teams are providing any necessary care. There is no electricity, no running water, and not enough fuel to start pumping water out of the flooded areas. Many of the emergency generators were damaged by storm. Phone lines and internet connectivity are spotty. Even cell phone coverage is unreliable. Today, UTMB estimates re-opening the doors with a skeleton crew next week. Services will be added as it becomes possible. It is just a guess that we may not be able to have inpatients for 4 to 6 weeks. Full operability of all the hospitals/clinics/outpatient services/area clinics will probably take months. Much of the operability of the hospital depends on the time it takes for the city/county infrastructure to be rebuilt.

This is emergency medicine's surge capacity nightmare. The nearest fully functional hospital is 60 miles away, in Houston, if someone has enough gas and a truck to get there through the water and the debris.

From a personal standpoint:
I am fine. I evacuated the day before the storm, and have been staying with my parents in West Texas. I will return to Dallas today or tomorrow. My home in Galveston is still standing......in 5 feet of water. The roof line is damaged and the front door was torn off, but the basic structure and most of the windows (?!?) are intact.

I am officially E2 personnel. I will be called back to Galveston in the next 3-4 days, and will live and work at the hospital until we go off emergency status. Hopefully they will be able to flush toilets and provide showers by then. My friends who are still there tell me it's a toss up as to what smells worse, the toilets or themselves.

My email is flooded. (Who knew that getting internet access in rural West Texas would be so hard?) The UTMB email is nonfunctional. I will try to post daily updates on the blog, and will answer my emails in as timely a fashion as possible.

I fear that the aftermath may be worse than the storm. The flood waters are a cesspool. There is no sewage or trash service. There is no electricity to run air conditioners and refrigerators. There is no water for washing hands or bathing, and I fear that even FEMA can't provide enough fresh water for everyone. There is not enough ice to keep food suitably cold, and not enough fuel to heat food properly. There is no gas to get off the island, and no stores to purchase goods.
AND....the storm hit Saturday a.m., but many of us have been displaced since the evacuation, seven days. Who knows how much longer the island will be unlivable?

I plan to provide updates through this blog. If you aren't a regular reader shame on you! No, seriously, please pass this on to others interested in the recovery: http://gardnersgate.blogspot.com/

Thank you again for all your care and concern in this trying time.
Angela

From a Hurricane Ike Evacuee

This post is a personal note to my friends, wherever they may be.

I am fine. My family is fine. I evacuated Galveston before the storm, and have been staying with my family in West Texas. My home in Galveston is at least underwater. Details will have to wait until someone can actually get to the neighborhood. (This is probably not a good sign.)

There are some true heroes of emergency medicine who stayed at UTMB so that many of us could evacuate with our families. They include my boss and friend, Dr. Brian Zachariah, Dr. Joshua Feinstein, Dr. Joe Chang, Dr. Paul English, Dr. Robert Goh, Dr. Brent Vasut, and Dr. Jim Hunderup.

I spoke with Brian today briefly, and have been told that they have no air conditioning, no water for showers, no electricity, and virtually no telephone or internet communication ability. Other than that, they are exhausted, but in good spirits.

They have treated about 100 patients in the past 36 hours, most of them relatively minor. The DMAT team arrived today, and now clinical care is being provided by the DMAT teams. (THANK YOU!)

Everything I heard was a mixture of good news and bad news......most of the university and hospital buildings appear to be structurally sound. There has been extensive flooding and some wind damage. Emergency operations have moved back to the Trauma Building. (For those of you unfamiliar with the campus, the Trauma Building, which houses the Emergency Department, is less than 100 yards from the water. The Emergency Department is actually on the second floor, and has a drive-up entrance ramp.)

All clinical activities at UTMB (other than emergency) have been suspended indefinitely. Emergency patients are stabilized and evacuated.

The bleak outlook for the island is the most distressing part of the news I received from the team today. The main water supply to the island is disrupted. Since it travels under the bay to the island, they cannot begin to fix the problem at this time. The Causeway is the only roadway to the island, and it is closed for debris clearance. It will be closed until the structural integrity can be guaranteed. There is no electrical power to the island. City officials currently estimate that water and electricity will be restored in 2 to 4 weeks.

UTMB officials stated in the 3:00 briefing today that they hope to relieve the E1s (the people who stayed through the storm) with E2s in the next 2-3 days, so I will head back to work when that happens. Employees have been instructed to contact their supervisors for details. Of course, this will depend on the restoration of transportation to the island. The conservative estimation for return to baseline functionality is 4 to 6 weeks. For the meantime, we remain on emergency status.

Thank you to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts and prayers this week. Thank you to the many volunteers and sponsors at shelters across the country. Thank you to the Texas Guard, the DMAT teams, the MANY fire/police/military and search and rescue teams...there are no words to thank you for the gift you have given my beloved island. Your generosity will not be forgotten.

I will keep you posted over the next few weeks as the recovery continues.

Obviously this is a "pre" photo.

In Memoriam: Roger Stone

This weekend was a sad one for the people who live on Galveston Island and work at UTMB (University of Texas Medical Branch). Roger Stone, who worked at UTMB in Logistics, died when his boat sank in the early morning hours Saturday. The 32-foot racing craft, Cynthia Woods, was 100 miles from Galveston racing toward Veracruz, Mexico in the Regata de Amigos. The boat cleared the Galveston jetties at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, carrying six crew members including Stone, first safety officer Steven Conway, and four Texas A & M students. All were seasoned sailors.

The university lost transponder contact about 10:00 p.m. Stone was below deck with two students at 11:00 p.m. when the boat’s keel came off, and was instrumental in their rescue. The vessel capsized in seconds in the 6-to8 foot seas. When the crew failed to make the 8:00 a.m. routine radio check, the Coast Guard began search and rescue.

Five members of the crew were rescued after 26 harrowing hours in the water, supported by four life vests. Roger Stone was not among them. His body was recovered from the vessel at 4:00 p.m. yesterday. He is survived by a wife and two children.

What is not common knowledge is that this is not Roger Stone’s first heroic rescue. Two years ago during Texas Race Week Roger Stone heard the single distress call from the Paladin and abandoned his own race ambitions to rescue the crew. Functioning as assistant coach and safety officer, with an all-student crew, Stone piloted the Reveille to the rescue of the dismasted Paladin, risking 30 knot winds and nearby jetties. All of the Paladin’s crew, including two who were overboard, were safely rescued.

Two years ago the rescue had a happy ending. All the crew members were saved and the race committee allowed redress to the Reveille for heroism. The result was a first in both class and fleet. Yesterday’s rescue does not have a happy ending, and my thoughts and prayers are with the family today as they face the loss of this true hero.