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"Water, Water: Everywhere"
Brad Goodwin,
DVM
Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care
University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston,
Texas
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Contents: Warning
System - Time Frame
- Impact - Regulatory
Notifications - Logistical Concerns
The Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine and Care is
comprised of 5 separate vivaria in the buildings of the
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The vivarium destroyed
by Tropical Storm Allison on 9 June
2001 was located in the basement of the Medical School Building. The
tragic consequences of Tropical Storm Allison resulted in profound losses
of property, equipment, and research animals. Indeed, there was water,
water everywhere!
This presentation will discuss the effects of
Tropical Storm Allison that occurred in the early hours of Saturday,
9 June 2001. The red arrow is pointing at the University of Texas
Houston’s Medical School Building. The Medical School is
one of numerous buildings at the world renowned Texas Medical
Center and is connected to Memorial-Hermann Hospital.
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The major animal care facility for the UTHSC-H was located
in the basement of the Medical School and was over
45,000 net square feet of space that included over 75 animal housing
rooms and related support areas.
| This photo depicts one of the many
flooded streets on the Texas Medical Center campus. Water, water,
everywhere. To reemphasize the severity of the flooding and the
enormity of the event, no matter how well we could have prepared,
the warning system was not effective in giving us adequate time
to prepare for an evacuation of the animals. Our facility manager
was called at midnight and all was reported to be well. Another
call at 2 a.m. reported that water had started to enter the building’s
basement. By 3:30 a.m., there was 12 feet of water in the basement
and ground level of the MSB. AND, our disaster plan is 2 inches
thick! |
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EARLY FLOOD WARNING SYSTEM
“ON-LINE”
• Could not prevail against the enormous amount of rain dumped
in such a short period of time
• No current technology exists that could have provided adequate
warning of what was coming
• This type of flooding statistically occurs only once every 500
years
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The first event was water flowing off the street,
around the rise on the loading dock, over the retaining wall, then
back into the loading dock and into the John Freeman Bldg. (3:00
A.M. doors on loading dock pushed open by water). The red arrows
show the flow of water from many different directions. |
| The red arrows demonstrate the water
flow pattern into the MSB basement. Much of the water entered via
the below grade loading dock. |
Loading dock, compare with flooded.
This is the entry ramp into the MSB below grade loading dock via
a very steep driveway. Note the poor location of the emergency generator
(ground level)! Sand bags were too late! |
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| This is the MSB loading dock as viewed from above
and from the other end of the ramp. |
This is the same MSB loading dock area as seen in the last two
slides with over 12 feet of water. This photo was taken the morning
after the flood. |
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UT MSB loading dock the morning of 9
June 2001 showing the water entry pattern. The water poured down
the loading dock ramp and the power of the force of the water caused
concrete walls to be knocked down, doors to be torn off hinges,
and windows to be broken. |
The first steps for recovery was to remove the
water from the building. Over 10 million gallons of water had
to be pumped from the basement of the MSB.
CRITICAL STEPS:
• Getting the water
out
• 22ft high water
level
• Estimated 10
million gallons |
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| Time
Frame
Friday, June 8, 11p.m.:
Showers stall over the Houston
area and the deluge begins.
Ultimately, Alison dumps up to 3 feet of rain over the Houston
area.
Saturaday, June 9: Some
UT-Houston researchers go to the medical school building to retrieve
or restore research projects.
Sunday, June 10: Medical
School and UT-Houston facilities management staff organize reclamation
and clean-up efforts.
Monday, June 11: Pumps begin pumping 10 million
gallons from the basement of the medical school building. All
other UT-Health Science Center schools and buildings are operational,
but Internet service and email are down most of the day.
Thursday, June 14: Voicemail is restored. Workers gain
access to the basement of the medical school.
Friday, June 15: Early estimates place total
damage to the Medical School at 72 million, a number that is expected
to grow as evaluation continues. Access to the building is further
restricted.
Friday, July 6: UT Medical School resumes normal
business operations. Basement and ground floor are closed for
renovations, but all other floors are accessible. Current estimates
place flood damages to the Medical School at more than $205 million.
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This slide depicts the series of events from Friday evening 8 June
2001 until Friday, 6 July 2001. There was no access to the MSB building
until Thursday, 14 June (6 days post flooding) and the entire building
was closed until 9 July 2001 (one month). During the first week of July,
the entire building was off limits due to electrical and other safety
concerns. Faculty and staff were finally allowed to return to their
offices after one month of working at home and in other buildings (thank
goodness for friends and colleagues)
| IMPACT ON THE
MEDICAL SCHOOL COMPLEX
• Over 1 million gross square feet of space
out of service for one month
• Cost of emergency cleanup, business interruption
and temporary facilities are
established at $30 million
• The total dollar impact of this event is about
$205 million, of which insurance will
only cover $50 million
• Total destruction of 40,000 square foot animal
facility that will NOT be rebuilt in
the basement location
• Loss of 78 nonhuman primates, 35 dogs, 300
rabbits and many rodents
• 350 to 400 faculty members and their research
projects affected
• Significant loss of cell and tissue cultures
• Significant equipment losses including MRI,
computers, diagnostic machines and associated data.
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The animal care vivarium was totally destroyed and over
45,000 net square feet of space will be rebuilt but NOT in the basement.
The damage to the facility was a total loss and no animals were recovered.
In addition to the loss of animal models, there was significant loss
of cell and tissue cultures, equipment including a brand new MRI, computers,
diagnostic machines and associated data. Much of the data was irreplaceable
and not reproducible.
The effect on animal based research during June and July 2001 was severely
reduced due to the lack of space to house research animals.
REGULATORY NOTIFICATIONS
I was out of the country at the time of the disaster, but the first
thing I did was send an email to Dr. Kathryn Bayne at the AAALAC-International
office. One of our first efforts (after answering news media inquiries)
was to detail in writing what happened; why it was a problem; what we
plan to do to prevent recurrence and mitigate the damages and then notify
all regulatory agencies such as USDA, OLAW and AAALAC-International.
We included the total animal losses by species in our written reports.
A freezer truck was provided for human cadaver and animal carcass disposal.
There were over 90 human cadavers in the MSB basement awaiting the fall
anatomy class for entering Medical School freshmen. The freezer truck
transported the animal carcasses and human cadavers to a commercial
incinerator in mid Texas. Entering the basement after 6 days required
escorts from the Environmental Health and Safety Office and full Personal
Protective Equipment to include full face respirators. Monitoring to
toxic gasses and molds was performed by the EH&S staff. The EH&S
staff was a key player in the safe recovery of equipment and animal
carcasses and they ensured the health and safety of the animal care
staff. All salvaged equipment was decontaminated and stored in rented
off-site warehouses.
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This is a photo of the CLAMC Associate Director’s office
in the MSB basement. |
This photo shows a basement laboratory within the vivarium. The
door to this room had to be forced open due to damages caused
by the rushing water. |
This photo shows the human cadaver container tanks that were
all over the basement. Many of these still contained human bodies
scheduled to be used for anatomy classes. |
Basic personal protective equipment showing the full face respirator,
Tyvek suits, hard hat, flashlights, etc. This safety team member
was instrumental in monitoring Carbon Monoxide, and other potentially
dangerous toxic gasses to ensure safe working conditions for staff
members assigned to the “clean-up” detail. |
Eleven CLAMC staff members lost their offices, computers and files.
None of the computers were repairable even though they were sent
to the best repair company in the United States. Many very wet documents
were recovered and sent away to be freeze dried, disinfected and
restored. The documents were returned after about 6 months and most
were usable. |
One staff member attempted to dry some valuable documents from
her office. |
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The structural integrity of the Medical School Building was altered
as shown in this photo. This is between the foundation and the
sidewalks at ground level and shows the tremendous amount of settling
and erosion underneath the building. Building structural integrity
must be considered in the recovery process. |
Another view of the settling of the building. |
LOGISTICAL CONCERNS
• Crowd control
• Media
• Concerned citizens
• Concerned researchers
• Academic operations |
Crowd control was performed expertly by the University of Texas Police.
The media was controlled by the UTHSC-H Public Affairs Office and reporters
for the most part were cooperative and realistic. The CLAMC Associate
Director, Dr. Chris Smith, was our spokesperson as I was out of the
country. She did a great job! Concerned citizens included the animal
rights community and the International Primate Protection League. Concerned
researchers created and conducted a very appropriate memorial to the
animals lost in this tragedy. Academic operations were slowed, but not
stopped. The day to day logistics were stressful as animals and research
projects were moved to other vivaria and leased space.
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Notice in the IPPL Newsletter requesting that concerned members express
their outrage over the deaths of 78 nonhuman primates. Letters were
received by the University President, Chairmen of the UT Board of Regents,
and myself as director of the program. I received approximately 125
letters and cards from all over the world.
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In an effort
to bring this tragedy to closure, a memorial service for the animals
lost in the flood was conducted in October, 2001. This was prepared
and presented by the research, animal care, and administrative staff
and was very effective. |
| We laughed, we cried,
and we remembered. The memorial service on 5 October 2001 did bring
the tragic loss of our animal charges to closure. Over 150 people
attended the service in one of the Medical School lecture halls.
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ONGOING RECOVERY
• Immediate
~ 1 year
• Intermediate ~ 1 – 5 years
• Long Term ~ 5 – 7 years |
The immediate recovery has extended to two years, the intermediate
to 2-7 years, and the long term could be forever! The recovery process
is excruciatingly slow and is obstructed by insurance, FEMA and state
issues. The replacement animal facility on the roof of the Medical School
Building will probably be completed 5 years after the flood.
RECOVERY - IMMEDIATE
• Totally decentralized
• Animals housed in 5 locations plus
• Medical School rodent and rabbit satellites (21)
• Use of neighboring institutions |
Managing a decentralized program is a major challenge at best. However,
we are surviving and animal populations are higher than pre-flood. The
satellite animal housing rooms in the MSB were laboratories that we
remodeled to accommodate animal housing. Our neighbors in the Texas
Medical Center such as the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have been instrumental
in leasing space for animal housing and experimental surgery. Without
this leased space, we would not be functional.
RECOVERY - INTERMEDIATE
• Support functions
in basement
• New surgery and holding on 8th floor
• Maximize other vivaria at Dental Branch and School
of Public Health |
Temporary cagewashing facilities have been installed in the MSB basement
and necropsy, cremation services, and storage are also available in
the deconstructed basement. The new surgery and animal holding will
most likely be built on the 8th and 9th floor of the MSB and should
be completed in 3 more years. Other vivaria have been maximized and
little housing space is available for expansion of the animal care and
use program.
RECOVERY - PERMANENT
• Replace 40,000
net sq. ft. of space
• No animals housed in the basement overnight
• New building or 7th Floor of Medical School
• Grants from NIH |
The replacement facility on the 8th and 9th floor of the MSB will include
staff offices, library, procedure rooms, a rodent barrier, experimental
surgery and testing rooms for nonhuman primates. Most of the support
functions will be rebuilt in the basement. No animals will be housed
overnight in the MSB basement and the 7th floor renovation is no longer
being considered. Two grants for reconstruction for $3 million each
were received from NIH. One grant is for rebuilding nonhuman primate
spaces and the other is for genetically engineered rodents. We feel
very fortunate to have received this support.
LESSONS LEARNED
• Placement
of key operations in low-risk locations
• Risk management
• Maintenance of structural integrity |
No overnight housing of animals in basement facilities—
Install submarine doors as mitigation strategies especially if key functions
such as experimental surgery and offices are located in basement levels—
Maintain structural integrity of all facilities--
DISASTER PLANS DO NOT
ALWAYS WORK
Expect the unexpected and remember that the best
of disaster plans do not always work. This is your Take Home Message!!
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