As tropical storm Harvey resumed its torrential assault on the Houston area today, some hospitals and clinics continued to shut down services and others operated with smaller staffs of providers who often struggled mightily to get to their patients.

Amrou Sarraj, MD, a vascular neurologist specializing in stroke care, who lives a mile from his work at Memorial Hermann Mischer Neuroscience Institute, told Medscape Medical News that his first thought when the worst of the downpour came early Sunday was that consults could be done remotely with in-house staff. Then he had a second thought: “My patients deserve better than this. We have an oath, right?”

So Dr Sarraj, who is 6-foot-2, walked out his door where the water was at first knee deep and then quickly chest deep. His neighbor and colleague, cardiologist Salman Arian, MD, an associate professor at the University of Texas, joined him and they slogged through the water together to help their patients and relieve their staffs.

Dr Sarraj, who had taken call on the weekend after a full week of coverage, rounded on 30 patients Sunday on all four services because other neurologists couldn’t make it in, and waded back home the way he had come.

Memorial Hermann has remained open, but other hospitals have had to evacuate patients and shut down services.

Harvey, as of Tuesday morning a tropical storm looming over the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to drench southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana with two more feet of rain on top of the more than 30 inches already seen, the Associated Press reported.

This morning the levee at Columbia Lakes breached in Brazoria County, just south of Houston, prompting officials to tweet: “Get out Now!!”

The roads surrounding the hospital were flooded waist deep, he said, and efforts to evacuate patients Sunday night were abandoned.

“Things are improving,” he said Tuesday morning. “Our supply chain is being reestablished. We actually got a linen delivery yesterday. We had a food supply delivery last evening. We had a 5 to 7-day food supply on hand, but with minor flooding in the basement, some of that food we couldn’t use,” he said. “We’re in good stead now for a couple more days.”

When there was a break in the weather yesterday, he said, they were able to refresh some of the staff.