Alethea Drexler
archives assistant
Everybody sing! “Don’t know why there’s no sun up in the sky . . . stormy weather . . . ”
Life in the Medical Center wasn’t all macramé room dividers and bright green armchairs in the 1970’s: There was rain. A lot of rain.
The Library addition was barely dry behind the ears before it got soaked.
On June 15, 1976, the Medical Center area received over ten inches of rain in just about six hours.
[Weather Research Center]
[USGS]
[South Belt Houston Digital Archive]
P-3082 . . . and these are the cars that were fortunate enough to be parked in surface lots, not in underground garages.
P-3074 The ones in underground garages stayed there until the water was pumped out.
The Medical Center computer system was left in ruins. These are magnetic data storage tapes (P-3074).
Photos of the flood’s aftermath include a lot of these Control Data Cyber 18-30 minicomputers (P-3074). That’s a lot of ruined paperwork, too.
P-3063 Library staff and volunteers had to bucket-brigade materials out of the street level.
Then, it happened all over again.
Tropical Storm Claudette blew through in 1979, breaking window and spraying debris all over those happy green chairs. (John P. McGovern Historical Collections photo files, Institutions)
. . . and swamping a new generation of cars. The light-colored roof on the left turned out to belong to a brand-new Chrysler.
