AUSTIN, Texas — South Texans are beginning to clean up after Hurricane Hanna wreaked havoc over the weekend. The storm couldn’t have come at a worse time as the region reels from spiking COVID-19 cases and deaths.

What You Need To Know

  • Gov. Greg Abbott surveyed the damage in Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley Tuesday.

  • He reported that despite the damage and strength of the storm, there were no lives lost. 

  • Starr County’s only hospital is overwhelmed with coronavirus patients, but care wasn't affected by the hurricane. 

  • McAllen Convention Center will be converted into a health care facility to help meet the region’s hospital capacity needs.

Gov. Greg Abbott surveyed the damage in Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley Tuesday. He reported that despite the damage and strength of the storm, there were no lives lost. He also noted no area residents were in shelters, which means there's less risk for COVID-19 spread. But he urged people to take precautions as they work to recover from the storm.

"Just because a hurricane has swept through here, it does not mean it's swept out COVID-19,” Gov. Abbott said.

Because of the storm and the preparations late last week for it, some communities postponed public coronavirus testing. Starr County’s health authority says it’s been six days since testing has taken place but they hope to resume Wednesday.

“The fact that we were not testing for the last six days reflected a decreased number of positive cases. We know this is not going to be the actual numbers once we start testing again in massive ways,” said Dr. Jose Vazquez.

Dr. Vazquez says no patient care was affected by the hurricane. But they are still running on empty and the county’s only hospital is overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.

“We have been at full capacity over the last three or four weeks,” he said. “Occasionally there are ambulances waiting for hours before they can bring their patients in.”

Last week, the county announced an ethics panel would screen all new patient arrivals to determine their probability for survival.

“Occasionally patients have been admitted and transferred thousands of miles away from their homes and their families and they have just gone and died in those hospital facilities outside of the county, outside of the Valley,” Dr. Vazquez said.  

He added the ethics committee is simply to advise families on the limited resources.

The governor announced Sunday that U.S. Navy teams will be there to provide additional medical help.

While in the Rio Grande Valley Tuesday, Gov. Abbott also said the McAllen Convention Center will be converted into a health care facility to help meet the region’s hospital capacity needs. It will have the capacity to treat 250 patients and will open later this week.

He also said the state is working with local officials to set up and operate alternate care sites across the Rio Grande Valley.