[3dem] Status in Houston

[Ludtke, Steven J]

Hi all, sorry for the slightly off-topic email. I've been getting quite a lot of emails from people asking how we are faring with all of the flooding, and I thought I would give a brief summary.

I don't want to downplay the event. Major portions of the city, many which have never flooded before, are experiencing major flooding. At my own house, we got 25" of rain over the last couple of days. However, Houston is a city built to handle flooding. In our area we experienced nothing worse than street flooding, which is part of the drainage design. Many of the images you may see on the news of freeways deep under water are similarly part of the drainage system design. Specific freeways are designated as part of the city drainage system to keep water away from houses in the event of major flooding. I'm just trying to put this in some context.

Even with all of these protections in place, this event is well beyond the "500 year flood" level. Such a large area of town saw 20-30" of rain falling so fast that it's impossible for it to drain fast enough. There are many people suffering in local regions all around the city. Many people have lost everything. However, the news gives the impression that _everything_ in the city is underwater, whereas in reality the problems are widespread, but local. With the flooding, people cannot get to each other and are largely trapped in-place.

I have managed to get in touch with most of the people associated with CryoEM in the Med. Ctr., aside from one person who had some house flooding, and one person who is under threat of a river exceeding its banks, everyone is fine so far. While we aren't out of the woods yet, and the next 3 days could bring additional problems, things seem to be improving overall at this point, and the vast majority of people you might know are fine. I have not communicated with the people at UTMB in Galveston, so I have no idea how they have been faring.

The Med. Ctr. itself underwent major drainage system work after Allison in 2001, and reports from BCM are that all of these measures worked as planned, and that there is no damage on campus at all. Indeed, most of the streets in the Med. Ctr. have already drained. Sounds like UTHealth is similarly fine.

Clearly the city as a whole will be recovering from this for some time, but so far it seems largely property damage with thankfully minimal loss of life. The city is coming together to help each other. In addition to all of the official rescue vehicles, anyone with a boat has been going out and helping to pull people out from the hardest hit areas. There are shelters set up all around town, and people are gathering until the danger is over. 

We appreciate all of your well-wishes, and if you wish to help, I'd encourage you to consider a donation to the Red Cross.
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Steven Ludtke, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept of Biochemistry and Mol. Biol.         (www.bcm.edu/biochem)
Co-Director National Center For Macromolecular Imaging        (ncmi.bcm.edu)
Co-Director CIBR Center                          (www.bcm.edu/research/cibr)
Baylor College of Medicine                             
sludtke at bcm.edu