Hurricane Beryl tore through Texas on July 8, 2024, causing widespread damage and leaving millions of people without power. This is the third article in a 4-part series highlighting the relentless efforts of St. Luke’s Health staff to ensure continuity of care across our hospitals.

Patients Medical Center

Power outages are common during a hurricane, but the addition of scorching heat and humidity created a host of issues for St. Luke's Health-Patients Medical Center as Hurricane Beryl bore down on the facility in Pasadena, southeast of Houston, on July 8.

The hospital seemed to be faring well as Beryl’s winds in excess of 90 mph tore through in six hours. Damage to the hospital was minimal except for a light pole that came crashing down in a covered parking area. 

But like approximately three million other Texans during the storm, the hospital lost power. Generators kicked in preemptively at 5:30 a.m. but could not support full air conditioning.  

“In Houston, where the humidity averages 90-95 percent, you get really warm very quickly and everything starts sweating, including the walls and ceilings,” recalled Steven Foster, president of St. Luke’s-Patients Medical Center.  

Patients were kept comfortable with temporary fans but after 24 hours of not getting reliable information from the electrical companies about restoration timelines, Foster felt “the right thing to do was to transfer patients.”

He had been in touch with the Southeast Texas Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC), the Houston Incident Command and St. Luke’s executives. “Our plan was to get our critical care patients moved first then our med surg and less critical patients later,” Foster said.

The team transferred 10 patients to St. Luke’s Health-Sugar Land Hospital and two critical care patients to Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston via an AMBUS that transported multiple patients at a time. All transfers were completed in just four hours. Other patients were safely discharged home.

Meanwhile, the hospital worked diligently to try and save sensitive equipment including sterile supplies from the high heat and humidity. They moved the affected items into a single room with spot coolers and evaporators to minimize the losses.

Once the storm passed, the entire PMC perioperative team reported for work to inventory, document, and order supplies to get the hospital open. The PMC emergency department never closed and the hospital was fully operational by the end of the week.

Foster found it extremely helpful to call upon the St. Luke’s Health system for help. “Being part of a network of hospitals allows us to communicate much more effectively. We were in constant communication across the Houston market to determine what the capacity opportunities were.”

Sugar Land Hospital 

St. Luke’s Health-Sugar Land Hospital took in 10 of the 12 patients transferred from its sister hospital, Patients Medical Center in Pasadena, and elsewhere.

The hospital never closed down, managed its own power outages and suffered little damage. The entire leadership team was on site for the storm. Many Sugar Land staff live in the area and arrived at the hospital soon after the storm no matter what losses they may have suffered during Beryl.  

“Because there was no significant damage to the hospital, St. Luke’s Health-Sugar Land became the reservoir and the safety hospital for other medical facilities that needed assistance,” said Foster, who is also president of St. Luke’s-Sugar Land. It received patients from St. Luke’s Health hospitals in Brazosport, Pasadena, and many outlying smaller hospitals and freestanding emergency departments that did not have a support system of hospitals.

All totaled, Sugar Land received a total of 20 transferred patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

“St. Luke’s Health-Sugar Land is a community-centric hospital. The staff know they are there for the community and how critical it is that the hospital stays open. Their commitment and dedication is even stronger during these emotional times. Time and again I have seen them give their all to accommodate the needs of the community,” Foster said.  

“One hundred percent of the kudos goes to the brave men and women that support our hospitals.”