Time to be thankful

We're ten weeks out now, and it's Thanksgiving week. Galveston's beginning to look a bit more civilized. We got a post office last week. Not a 'whole' post office, but not a trailer either. That's pretty good, isn't it?

And late last week UTMB finally opened the hospital. The fanfare was blunted considerably by the 3,000+ pink slips that went out the same week. To add insult to injury, the place was only open a couple of days before they had to close it again -- at least temporarily. You see, there were too many mold spores in the air. I don't understand all that. Seems to me all you have to do is stick in a bunch of HIPA filters and drive on, but I guess not. The surgical suites had to shut down, as did admissions. We're told it's not a big deal and that John Sealy Hospital will be up and running again real soon.

'Up and running' is technically right but perhaps a bit of an overstatement. A hospital that's had 500-600 beds before Ike is now a 200 bed hospital with services limited to women's health (too bad for us sick males), geriatrics (guess I can get a fake ID), and children (if I act immaturely, can I pass?).

But is this really time for cynicism? Best to push that aside for now and be thankful for all we have. I've got a family with enough moxie to decide to all come to Galveston for Thanksgiving. We'll have over twenty people here, not counting high chairs. Quite a showing of good sports, I'd say.

We're letting all our friends know that in lieu of Xmas gifts this year, they'll get a donation to the Galveston Historical Foundation in their name. To get an idea of what this group does as well as what they are now facing, take a look here:


http://www.galvestonhistory.org/

So raise a toast for our island this Thanksgiving. We used to be 60,000 strong; now we're about 40,000. But we'll be toasting life as well.

Cheers...

I heard one of those infuriating comments the other day from a Houstonian who had not been to Galveston. “Yeah, our neighborhood was really clobbered by Ike. Why, I’ll bet we lost twenty trees on our street.” Twenty trees. Imagine that. We have block after block with twenty business each that haven’t come back. We have plenty of neighborhoods of a hundred homes with only twenty occupied. Interestingly, most everyone who was missing after Ike has been found or the body recovered. Heck, there are only about twenty left to go, and the cadaver dogs are busy wrapping that up. Yep, things don’t seem so bad here when you hear about a guy whose street lost twenty friggin’ trees.

Yesterday, I found a note taped to my front door. It was from FEMA and read: “Are you currently living in this damaged dwelling? Please update and verify your FEMA case file.”

‘Are you currently living in this damaged dwelling?’ That’s sort of like, ‘Are you still beating your wife?’ or ‘Were you always that heavy?’ I’ve gotten more or less accustomed to my damaged dwelling. Why just this morning I fired up my little gas space heater to warm up the living room and sat down with my computer and cell phone connection to log on. You see, we don’t have heat or air-conditioning ducts nor internet service here.

But it’s a pleasant, crisp morning. A nice time to switch on NPR. No Meet The Press for us. You see, we haven’t had television for some time. But Kathy and I are getting pretty good at Scrabble, and we’re running right through all those books and magazines that have been laying around. I’ve got a Roy Rogers DVD I think we’ll watch tonight.

So yes, I am verifying it: We are indeed currently living in this damaged dwelling.

Cheers

The Galveston National Laboratory was officially opened on Veterans Day. I was one of many invited guests. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was a keynote speaker. She was born at UTMB, and Galveston is her hometown.



The man to her left is Dr. David Callender - President of UTMB. And that was yesterday. Today Dr. Callender was in El Paso along with the University of Texas Board of Regents to decide on next steps for UTMB. This afternoon the anticipated announcement was made: 3800 full-time jobs will be cut, severely downsizing the island’s only hospital. That's about a third of the payroll.

UTMB has been losing $40 million a month as it makes its payroll with no hospital from which to derive revenue - thanks to Ike. This was brutal news for employees who have been unable to return to work since the storm surge flooded 750,000 square feet of buildings, including the 550-bed hospital.

This leaves families, some of whom also lost their homes, reeling, and businesses that depend on medical branch crowds, fearing for their futures. UTMB has been around for 117 years, and the regents have promised it won't go away. The new highly specialized infectious disease lab is the only such operational facility in North America and is a key piece of the research to be done on everything from bioterrorism to ebola and dengue viruses. But that's the research part. It was the patient care component that took the huge hit.

The medical center incurred $710 million in Hurricane-Ike related expenses and only $100 million in flood insurance, the most it could obtain. It was exciting to see the National Lab dedicated. Too bad it's overshadowed today with such heartbreaking news.

Things are gradually getting better. Our main streets are not totally free of the clutter of debris, but it's far less of an eyesore. The medical school and hospital are slowly moving ahead with services, although it will be some time before this island has the full services of a medical center.


This was one of two thirty acre dumps with piles as high as a three story building.



As of this week, here's how it looks.




It's Sunday, and church services go on, even on sidewalks when the buildings are still uninhabitable.