Back in October, Nature’s Rex Dalton reported that the biosafety level 4 pathogen research lab in Galveston, Texas had survived Hurricane Ike.

In that story, he noted:

Ike, which hit on 13 September, caused at least $700 million worth of damage — including $275 million in lost hospital revenues — to University of Texas facilities. That includes more than $400 million for clinical facilities at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), and at least $18 million for UTMB research labs. Lower-floor laboratories were flooded, and hundreds of animals had to be destroyed after auxiliary power systems failed.

Now the UT Medical Branch has started laying off its workers as a result of the Ike damage. The Houston Chronicle says 3,000 of UTMB’s 12,000 employees will be let go.

“It’s terrible,” Deborah Warren, a surgical technician in the neonatal unit at the branch’s Sealey Hospital, told the New York Times. “It’s a hard time for the hospital, our city and our state. I’m just curious to know if they can bail out Wall Street, why they cannot bail out UMTB.”

The Galveston County Daily News says:

If there’s a bright spot in the grim week ahead, it’s that the medical branch, the county’s most powerful economic engine, will dismiss only 2,800 to 3,000 people. University of Texas System regents last week authorized cutting up to 3,800 full-time equivalent positions.

Images: before and after Ike photos from the Bolivar Peninsula, near Galveston Island / USGS (click to enlarge)