Lab Matters Spring 2018 | Page 13

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Fighting the Crisis with Connections

One of the worst catastrophes last year was due to an especially large MCS that hung over the Houston area for days in the wake of Hurricane Harvey . Even before the storm ended , the National Weather Service issued a dire appraisal , warning : “ This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced .”

Ultimately , the weather system dropped 30 to 60 inches of water in parts of the Houston and Beaumont metropolitan areas . Over 100 people died in stormrelated incidents , more than 10,000 were rescued from flooded areas and tens of thousands were displaced . Storm damage topped $ 100 billion , with some estimates close to $ 200 billion .

Although the City of Houston Health Department Laboratory sits close to some of the area ’ s bayous , Kim Phillips , the lab ’ s water microbiology team lead , said , “ Water did not come in . We just got very , very lucky .”

The laboratory , having survived past floods , knew what to expect — water testing would be a high priority . “ What we ’ ve done ,” Phillips explained , “ is establish very strong contacts with the county health departments and extension agencies to help with bottle distribution and sample drop-off points ,” with courier service between those sites and the laboratory . She said , “ We ’ re way in the middle of Houston . Some of [ our customers ] are 60 miles away . A lot of them are knee-deep in mud or can barely get away from their houses . We ’ re very spread out . This is Texas , you know .”

Even so , some of the laboratory ’ s partners were themselves flooded , underscoring the need , as Phillips said , “ to be very well connected so you can serve the community .”

In the immediate aftermath of the storm , the laboratory was closed for three days . Then , beginning Labor Day weekend , the facility operated seven days a week with whatever staff could make it in . Over the next two months , scientists conducted almost 3,000 private well water tests , compared with about 700 during the same period in 2016 . Almost 40 % of those tests were positive for coliform bacteria .

“ But [ testing ] didn ’ t stop ,” Phillips said . “ Recontamination is a very real issue after floods , because the water table is not just connected to your well , and the floodwater keeps trickling down and trickling down . And we had feet of standing water .”

She said , “ If we get a positive sample for coliforms or E . coli , we call the next day . So we ’ re speaking to these people constantly . They ’ re treating their wells and re-testing , re-testing , re-testing . Once we find bacteria in the water , it ’ s not safe to drink , not safe to bathe , not safe to wash your hands or brush your teeth or wash any food you ’ re gonna eat raw . ... So these people are just paralyzed .”

As late as March 2018 , Phillips and her team were still doing follow-up water testing .

About 200 miles down the coast from Houston , Corpus Christi was spared Harvey ’ s unending rainfall , but took the brunt of its Category 4 winds before the storm weakened and stalled .

Valerie Requenez , BS , MLS ( ASCP ) CM , BT coordinator at the Corpus Christi- Nueces County Public Health Laboratory , said she and colleagues “ did a lot of in-house preparation ” before Harvey made landfall on Friday night , August 25 . All of the laboratory ’ s select agents were autoclaved . Equipment was moved to higher areas within the facility . Reagents and supplies were consolidated within a few refrigerators and freezers . “ Everything that wasn ’ t vital ” was disconnected from its power supply to reduce potential demand on back-up generators . Loose objects were secured . Analyzers and computer equipment were covered with tarps .

On the personnel side , the laboratory director opted to weather the storm on-site at the facility . Most other staff members evacuated the area . Requenez said , “ We had a good timeline of where people were going to be , so we knew how long it would take them to get back , once we got the all-clear .”

Drawing on her 30 years of laboratory experience , Phillips offers the following preparedness advice :

• Conduct cross-training across the facility — for example , between chemistry and microbiology — so testing can continue even if an entire section cannot report to work .

• Develop “ contact trees ” so supervisors can “ make sure everyone ’ s okay ” and relay laboratory updates .

• Conduct regular emergency response drills , so everyone is “ familiar with what you said you were going to do .”

• Provide customers with written information before an emergency . “ After the flood , they don ’ t have electricity . It doesn ’ t matter what ’ s on the computer or on the news ; people aren ’ t watching the news .”

• “ Make sure you have a really great relationship with your vendors , so you can get supplies quickly . You can ’ t be waiting two weeks for a PO number .”