Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced July 9 that the state would deploy 25 additional ambulances and add 250 medical beds at NGR Arena "to support Houston’s EMS and hospital capacity needs" in the wake of Hurricane Beryl's aftermath.
The storm made landfall as a Category 1 storm during the early hours of July 7 and has since resulted in the deaths of 7 people, Houston Public Media reported.
Initially, hospitals were challenged "with staffing, with some hospital employees having a hard time getting to work or are dealing with their own homes, families and safety," a spokesperson for the Texas Hospital Association told Becker's July 7 in a previous interview. "There have been some sporadic hospital reports of power issues, wind, and water damage and some flooding that has impacted areas around some of the hospitals. But we are grateful that so far we have not heard of any more significant hospital damage at this point."
Several Houston-area hospitals shut down July 8 or cut services to preserve their resources. The additional hospital beds and deployment of more ambulances will allow for additional capacity and a strengthened response.
In a separate July 8 update, Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick noted that the state also has "more than 2,500 responders and over 1,200 assets remain rostered and deployed by the state of Texas in support of the state’s storm response. Those resources have continued to follow the storm as it moves through East Texas to support any requests for assistance from local officials in those areas."