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TLP:GREEN

Healthcare Ready is ALERT for Tropical Storm Nicholas
Tuesday, September 14: This report includes an assessment of the observed and potential impacts to healthcare and public health due to Tropical Storm Nicholas.

High-Level Situation Summary 
  • Hurricane Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane early Tuesday morning over the Gulf Coast of Texas before being downgraded to a tropical storm. 

  • The system is projected to quickly weaken and move into Southwest Louisiana as a depression or remnant low by Wednesday. 

  • The National Hurricane Center reported that the center of the storm made landfall just after 12:30 am CT on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula, about 10 miles west-southwest of Sargent Beach. As of 7 am September 14, Nicholas was about 15 miles south-southwest of Houston and moving north-northeast at eight miles per hour, with maximum sustained winds of 60 m.p.h. 

  • Primary impacts of Nicholas are related to heavy rainfall. Impacts to southeast Louisiana through the week should be closely monitored due to potential for interruption of ongoing recovery from Hurricane Ida.  
     

Expected Impacts

Power outages

  • As of September 14, 10:37 am, the state of Texas has 222,512 customers without power.    

    • CenterPoint Energy, which provides power to much of Houston and Southeast Texas, reports the most significant impacts on the company’s southern, central and eastern services, and crews have begun damage assessment and working to restore power.  
    • Power restoration is prioritized to public safety infrastructure, such as hospitals, before moving on to returning power to the largest number of customers at a time. 
    • CenterPoint Energy experienced among the most significant outages during winter February winter storms that left more than 4.5 million homes and businesses without power.
    • The following counties in Southeast Texas have the highest power outage rates: Matagorda, Brazonia, Chambers, Wharton, Austin, Galveston, Colorado.
Transportation: 
  • Texas 

    • Some road closures, mostly due to flooding, have been reported in impacted areas of Texas, including Houston, Galveston, and Beaumont. For updates on road status, check https://drivetexas.org/  

    • More than 330 flights have been cancelled on Tuesday at Houston’s William P. Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental airports. 

Resource Staging: 
  • Texas 

    • The following resources are activated
      • Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Task Force One): 6 Swift Water Rescue Boat Squads and 8 Overhead Packages. 

      • Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Game Warden Boat Teams. 

      • Texas Military Department: 5 Ground Transportation Platoons with High Profile Vehicles. 

      • Texas Department of State Health Services: Texas Emergency Medical Task Force (EMTF) Severe Weather Packages. 

Emergency Declarations 

  • Texas 

    • StateGovernor Greg Abbot issued a disaster declaration for 17 counties late Monday, September 13 evening. 

      • Counties included in the state disaster declaration are Aransas, Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Matagorda, Montgomery, Newton, Nueces, Orange, Refugio, San Patricio, and Victoria.  

        • The State will add additional counties as needs are identified. 

      • On September 12, the Governor ordered the Texas State Operations Center (SOC) to increase its readiness to Level II (Escalated Response). 

  • Louisiana 


Evacuations
  • Texas 

    • The Houston-Galveston Area Council created a ZIP code system for evacuations based on the threat of a hurricane’s storm surge. 
      • As of 3 pm September 13, a mandatory evacuation went into effect for the City of Quintana. 


Sheltering
  • The American Red Cross has opened shelters along the Texas Gulf Coast for people impacted by flooding due to Tropical Storm Nicholas. 


Communications
  • There are no major outages in communication reported from current sources at this time.  

Access and Reentry
  • Texas 

  • Louisiana   

  • Mississippi    

    • Mississippi also utilizes the ER-ITN statewide credentialing and access program to facilitate post-disaster re-entry. The system permits individuals and organizations to register for re-entry credentials. Access and re-entry decisions are communicated by the Mississippi State Police and ER-ITN.   


Port Closing 
Healthcare Response Updates and Needs

Healthcare Facilities 

  • Hospitals  

    • Harris Health System closed all of its outpatient clinics at 3 pm on September 13 and remained closed Tuesday, September 14. This includes all primary care and specialty clinic locations, the Ambulatory Surgical Center at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, Riverside Dialysis Center and all infusion and radiation therapy services. Clinics will resume regularly scheduled appointments Wednesday, September 15 at noon. 

      • A list of temporary facility closures can be found here.  

  • Dialysis centers   

    • Large dialysis organizations have reported a delay in opening facilities on September 14 and a number of closures. Facilities are still assessing the full impact of the storm.  

      • Organizations are coordinating with providers, including other dialysis providers and hospitals to help ensure the continuity of care for patients.  

      • Centers along the coast preemptively treated patients ahead of the storm and placed generators across the Houston area, ready to be deployed.  

Pharmacy Operations 
  • Rx Open is activated for TX, LA, MS, AL, NJ, NY, and PA. The map was last updated at 2:00pm ET, 9/14. As of this update: 

    • 6.8 % of participating pharmacies in Texas were reporting Closed or Unknown.  

    • 4.3 % of participating pharmacies in Louisiana were reporting Closed or Unknown.   

    • 1.9 % of participating pharmacies in Mississippi were reporting Closed or Unknown. 

  • The map will be updated the afternoon of Wednesday, 9/15.  
COVID-19 Status
  • Texas 

    • As of September 13, Texas Department of State Health Services reported 8,140 new cases of COVID-19, and 13,065 people hospitalized with COVID-19. 

    • Houston Health Department-affiliated COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites are closed Tuesday, September 14 due to Tropical Storm Nicholas, and some COVID-19 clinics in Corpus Christi will be closed through September 14. 

  • Louisiana  

Emergency Prescription Refills
  • TRICARE has announced emergency prescription refills in all counties in Texas through September 20. 
  • Texas 
    • In the event of a natural or manmade disaster, the Texas Pharmacy Act allows a pharmacist to dispense up to a 30-day supply of a prescription drug without authorization from the original prescriber. This applies to prescription drugs other than a Schedule II controlled substance. 
    • The Texas Board of Pharmacy has authorized pharmacists in Texas to dispense up to a 30-day supply of medication (other than a Schedule II controlled substance) for patients affected in the counties of the disaster area under certain conditions. 
  • Louisiana     

 

Potential Oil/Resources Impact

  • Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reports that over 40% of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico's production of crude and natural gas remains shut as of Monday, September 13.  

    • About 794,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude production and 1.15 billion cubic feet per day of gas were offline, while 47 production platforms continued evacuations. 

  • Power outages caused Colonial Pipeline to shut down lines 1 & 2 from Houston to North Carolina as a precautionary measure.  

    • Although there is no current restart time reported from Colonial, it is not anticipated that there will be any effect on gas or diesel delivery. 

    • Lines 3 and 4, which run from North Carolina up the coast to New Jersey, continue to operate normally. 
       

Other Actions 
If you become aware of situation(s) that may adversely affect healthcare supply or care in the affected area, or if you would like to request the assistance of Healthcare Ready, please contact us at Alerts@HealthcareReady.org or call 1.866.247.2694. 
 
We are standing by, ready to assist those in the impacted areas. For those of you in the affected areas, our thoughts are with you. 
 
Thank you, 
Healthcare Ready Support Team 

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