Houston’s NRG Center serving as medical shelter to assist discharged patients without power at home – Houston Public Media

Daisy Espinoza / Houston Public Media

As the Houston region continues to cope with widespread power outages in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, the NRG Center is serving as a medical shelter for patients who have been discharged from hospitals but cannot safely return home.

Emergency response organizations at the city and state level, in collaboration with Harris County and the SouthEast Texas Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC), began utilizing the 706,000-square-foot convention center on Wednesday. There is capacity for up to 250 patients, according to Houston Office of Emergency Management spokesperson Brent Taylor, who said there was “plenty of availability” as of Thursday afternoon.

Taylor said the purpose of the shelter, which is free to use for patients, is to serve those who require ongoing medical care after being discharged from local hospitals but cannot get that at home because of power outages or damage to their residences. More than 1.1 million electricity customers across the Houston region remained without power Thursday afternoon, more than three days after the deadly Category 1 hurricane caused significant flooding and knocked down trees and power lines.

“These are people who were in the hospital and could be discharged from the hospital, but the hospital won’t discharge them to a home that they can’t take care of themselves in,” Taylor said.

RELATED: Cooling centers, shelters open across Houston area in aftermath of Hurricane Beryl

About 40 patients had been admitted to the medical shelter as of Wednesday evening, and another 70 or more were en route at that time, according to Taylor, who said he could not immediately provide an updated count Thursday afternoon.

The Texas Division of Emergency Management helped set up the shelter and also provided 25-plus ambulances to the Houston area to help relieve a storm-related strain on healthcare facilities and emergency medical personnel, according to agency chief Nim Kidd. While the region’s largest hospitals remain open, Kidd said Thursday that 12 of them are experiencing “internal disasters.”

“Internal disaster means they either don’t have enough staff or enough resources to take care of the patients that they have,” Kidd said, “which is why we put up a 250-bed hospital at NRG (Center) and added a minimum of 25 ambulances to this mix to be able to move those patients around as quickly as possible.”

RELATED: Houston Mayor Whitmire says Beryl exposed gaps in city’s storm preparedness

The NRG Center is part of NRG Park, which is owned by Harris County. The complex includes the Astrodome as well as NRG Stadium, home of the NFL’s Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The stadium sustained roof damage during Monday’s storm.

Taylor said the temporary medical shelter will operate as long as it’s needed, which is largely dependent on when CenterPoint Energy can restore power to the region.

“It’s until we get through the disaster, to where these hospitals can manage their capacities and to where discharging patients isn’t a concern the way it is right now,” he said.