UTHealth Houston community rises in Hurricane Beryl’s aftermath

UTHealth Houston community rises in Hurricane Beryl's aftermath

Written by: Public Affairs | Updated: July 16, 2024

The UTHealth Houston Neurosciences team was one of many that jumped back into service after Hurricane Beryl to focus on patient care. (Photo Courtesy of UT Physicians)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, with power outages, internet disruptions, and interrupted cell signals, UTHealth Houston's commitment to its students, physicians, and staff has not wavered.

With help from teams across campus, UTHealth Houston was able to showcase its resilience and embody its vision - excellence above all - throughout its recovery from Hurricane Beryl.

"Thanks to phenomenal teams working around the clock to remove storm debris, repair damage, and keep our systems and facilities up and running, UTHealth Houston is safe and open for all our students, trainees, faculty, and staff," said Giuseppe N. Colasurdo, MD, president and Alkek-Williams Distinguished Chair.

UTHealth Houston School of Public Health had more than one school location potentially in the path of the storm, as the school's Brownsville location also faced potential damage in earlier landfall forecasts.

"Houston and our other five locations across the state (Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Brownsville, and El Paso) are no stranger to inclement and disruptive weather," said Eric Boerwinkle, PhD, the school's dean, M. David Low Chair in Public Health, and Kozmetsky Family Chair in Human Genetics.

"The university worked hard to ensure great preparation before, and response after, Beryl swept through, and we were able to keep our students safe and facilitate continuity of learning."

Facilities and Auxiliary Enterprises
During emergency weather events, the UTHealth Houston ride-out team is the backbone of Facilities.

For Hurricane Beryl, the ride-out team deployed around noon on Sunday, July 7, to set up flood barriers. They stayed on-site until noon on Monday, July 8. This critical time frame allowed the team to provide front-line reporting to operations managers and executive leadership about what was happening on campus. This significantly contributed to ensuring a safe environment for everyone to return to while minimizing the potential for major building damage caused by water leaks, electrical fires, or mechanical issues.

Two-person teams were deployed across campus and assigned specific buildings to oversee. Their job was to keep active research and facilities safe by taking immediate corrective or mitigative actions to reduce any damages caused by water leaks, electrical fires, or mechanical issues.

Forrest Johnson, executive director of Housing, Leasing, and Property Management, explained the teams' purpose. "They are the eyes and ears on campus and report back to senior leadership about any critical failures. They also serve as first responders to infrastructure failures and mitigate damages as much as possible."

The following personnel volunteered and served on the ride-out team: Tracy Batchelor, Dennis Burnaman, Onnie Dixon, Chris Dominguez, Phillip Dugas, Tim Ingram, Julio Lucadou, Lester Milburn, Eduardo Molina, Gerardo Ortega, James Proctor, Nael Reyes, Rudy Rubio, Frank Trevino, James Washington, Ronnie Williams, and Kris Winek.

"Although most buildings on campus were damaged to some extent, the ride-out team significantly mitigated those damages at several locations," said Wes Stewart, vice president of Facilities, Planning, Engineering, and Auxiliary Enterprises.

Immediately after the storm on Monday afternoon, a relief team consisting of senior project managers, additional maintenance technicians, and administrative personnel picked up where the ride-out team left off. They worked around the clock with others to repair damages sustained by Hurricane Beryl. Special thanks to senior project managers: Laura Berbel, Carlos Cabrera, Tamika Cain-Proctor, Hai Dinh, Sarah Galecki, Crystal Gomez, Kiel Hawkins, Ruben Lucio, Brady Smyth, and Nick Tamayo.

UT Physicians
In the face of Hurricane Beryl, UT Physicians demonstrated unwavering dedication to patient care. The team swiftly reopened clinics, ensuring continuous medical services despite the storm's challenges.

Rita Willis, RN, BSN, MPH, vice president and chief operations officer of obstetrics and gynecology at UT Physicians, exemplified this commitment by participating in a clinic leadership call from outside a grocery store, relying on public Wi-Fi to stay connected. Similarly, Judith Coulter, project manager on the UT Physicians marketing team, used Wi-Fi at a nearby college to create essential hurricane-related social media graphics.

Melissa McDonald, director of marketing and communications at UT Physicians, worked at the UT Physicians Multispecialty-Sienna clinic on Tuesday, July 9, to access power and internet service and recalled a heartfelt moment.

"A lady in the parking lot ran up to me when she saw my burnt orange shirt," McDonald said. "She was a patient who wanted to know if we were open. When I said yes, she hugged me and said she had hoped that was the case because she really needed to see a doctor."

Andrew Casas, senior vice president of UTHealth Houston and chief operating officer for UT Physicians, expressed his gratitude.

"I would like to express my deep appreciation to all of you," Casas said. "I know I can always count on our practice to rise to the challenges. Whether an ice storm, a hurricane, or some other impactful event, the many faces of UTHealth Houston always shine."

Read more about UT Physicians standing strong after Hurricane Beryl online.

Information Technology
On Monday and Tuesday following Hurricane Beryl, IT staff worked to troubleshoot problems, restore storm-related outages with vendors, and staff the main data center. The department switched the data center to generator power for a few hours during high winds to avoid street power disruptions. Remote work capabilities remained operational throughout the storm.

Nearly 50 IT employees were on-site at various times beginning on Sunday and remained until Wednesday. Other IT staffers worked remotely from their homes if they had power, and others from parking lots and hotel rooms to get a signal when they couldn't work from home or drive to campus due to road conditions.

"Thanks to their efforts, we maintained continuous IT operations during the storm," said Amar Yousif, MBA, vice president and chief information officer for UTHealth Houston.

Safety, Health, Environment, and Risk Management (SHERM)
Scott Patlovich, MPH, DrPH, assistant vice president of Environmental Health and Safety and Risk Management, emphasized the importance of preparedness, noting Beryl's unexpected wind strength increase before landfall.

"The widespread power and connectivity issues presented major challenges, but the community's hard work and dedication enabled a swift return to normal operations," Patlovich said.

Patlovich highlighted a small but impactful gesture: leadership ordering pizzas for students who couldn't cook or study at home. "That type of teamwork and dedication make UTHealth Houston so resilient and such a great place to work."

UT Police at Houston
On Sunday evening, UT Police at Houston activated its Special Operations Center and Water Evacuation Team. Additional police and security staff were called up to protect the campus and measures were taken to ensure relief team members were also prepared to respond. UT Police responded to a distress call for a medical emergency, an elevator entrapment, and storm damage to a University Housing apartment.

UT Police's badge access team was on-site providing support for access control issues that surfaced during Hurricane Beryl. Some of the challenges included badge clearance modifications for the ride-out staff, ensuring building unlock and lockdown schedules were modified based on changing conditions, and providing support to UT Police on storm-related issues.

Badge access team members who were able to work from home conducted virtual patrols of the campus, focusing their attention especially on exterior doors. They looked for blown-out doors, water leaks, and damage to property to promptly report any observed damage to Facilities teams.

After the winds died down, UT Police's Technical Services team responded to work tickets to assess and repair damaged access control and video systems.

Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care
Every year, the Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care closely monitors storm activity. This vigilance paid off when forecasters issued dire predictions for Hurricane Beryl's path.

On Sunday morning, Mary Robinson, DVM, associate professor and executive director of the center, and Jeanette Pearson, assistant director of the center's husbandry operations, began asking for employees to volunteer to care for animals during the storm.

"I am always impressed by the selflessness shown time and time again by those on my team who willingly devote their time to stay on-site and provide care for all of the animals during these weather events," Robinson said. "I am happy to report that we maintained excellent animal care throughout the hurricane and in the days since due to our dedicated animal care staff. They are truly the heart of the support for the animal research enterprise at UTHealth Houston."

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