How A Houston Hospital Stays Afloat During Extreme Weather

Texas Medical Center in Houston is the world’s largest medical complex. It’s big enough to have its own skyline — dozens of buildings, 106,000 employees who care for some 10 million patients per year.

Back in 2001, it was in the path of a tropical storm, Allison. At first, folks didn’t think that was such a big deal.

“We have tropical storms all the time on the Gulf Coast, and it’s lots of rain and some minor street flooding and it goes away,” said Claire Bassett, chief communications officer at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, describing the atmosphere ahead of landfall.

“It was just, ‘Oh, it’s another tropical storm. It’s going to be a wet weekend, [then] it’ll be over and done with,’” she said.

But day after day, Allison’s heavy rains did not stop. Four days after landfall, the storm wheeled back over the city with intense downpours. The ground was already saturated, leading to widespread flooding.

And Texas Medical Center