Floodwaters approached Houston's Ben Taub Hospital on Sunday as staff repeatedly revised plans to evauate patients because of flooding from Hurricane Harvey. (Andrew Kragie/AP)The first ambulances finally arrived at Ben Taub Hospital, in the heart of Houston’s vast Texas Medical Center, to remove five patients clinging to life on ventilators. This led to such physical changes in the sprawling medical center as submarine doors that can be closed to wall off parts of a tunnel system that runs beneath the blocks-long area. As waters recede in some places, medical emergencies from the storm and its cleanup will multiply, doctors and hospital officials know. And following its protocol, Pile said, the Catastrophic Medical Operations Center will conduct an after-study to compile evidence of how hospitals weathered the storm.

Source: Washington Post August 31, 2017 00:15 UTC