Texas Children's Hospital Flood Protection Program

To protect the world’s largest full-scale pediatric hospital located in the Texas Medical Center from flooding, Walter P Moore provided a comprehensive study and engineering design including staff preparation, training, and drills. Our design met the special demands of healthcare operations, which mandated minimum disruption to public and service corridors, ability to allow wheeled car traffic to smoothly navigate the corridors, compliance with ADA requirements, and fast deployment of the gates in five minutes or less during flash flooding. Flood protection work included durable and aesthetically-pleasing flood gates, protection of the basements interconnected with adjacent hospitals (able to restrain 30 feet of water pressure), and sealing of mechanical and utility penetrations. In June 2001, the new flood protection system had its first test – Tropical Storm Allison which was the most devastating rain event in U.S. history. The hospital remained dry and operational during that massive storm that flooded Downtown Houston and flooding and closing several major hospitals in the Texas Medical Center.