Some US institutions have not been able to catch up with things after the Hurricane Ike. One of them is the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, a teaching hospital, severely damaged by the hurricane, which caused nearly $710 million in losses to the hospital when it struck the Texas coast in September.

Therefore, the University of Texas Board of Regents said that the Galveston hospital would have no money to operate in about three months, at its current spending rate. Consequently, the hospital will layoff about 3,800 or 8,000 employees and remove at least 350 of its 550 hospital beds. Still, the UT officials announced that the people losing their job will be paid through January. Dr. Kenneth Shine, interim chancellor of the UT system, stated that many of the laid off employees will find work at other health care institutions.

The movement will cause a ripple effect across the Texas health care system, a patchwork of overburdened providers that treat the 30 percent of Texas without insurance, David Lopez, CEO of the Harris County Hospital District believes. He added that the system for Texas’ uninsured could crash down in a heartbeat. “But we manage to keep it going. It’s a struggle year in and year out. But as long as everyone is sharing in that, it sort of keeps it going. If one part of the system goes down, it further exacerbates the problem for everyone else,” Lopez said.

Hurricane Ike hit Texas and Galveston on September 13. It took away buildings and killed nearly 37 residents in Texas and 70 in all the country. Ike was the most powerful hurricane that spread 600 miles when it reached the ground. It left $11.4 billion in damages, being the most expensive calamity in Texas history.