Hurricane Harvey babies: Some hospitals see spike in births months after the storm
Hurricane Harvey's damaging winds and floods devastated Houston and surrounding areas last year. While Houston has been on the path to recovery, there are some bundles of joy too: Some local hospitals are now seeing an uptick in baby deliveries, nine months after the storm.
"We've had about a 17 percent increase so far in the month of May for deliveries," Liberty King, director of Women's and Neonatal Services at the Corpus Christi Medical Center, told Corpus Christi-based TV station KIII-TV. King said that's around 50 to 60 more deliveries than average.
The bustling, baby-filled hospital is a far cry from August 2017, when coastal hospitals had to evacuate to San Antonio and further north to escape the storm's wrath. King said they had to transfer 15 babies outside of their NICU last year.
While many loved ones were separated during the hurricane, King believes the disaster also brought people closer.
"Anytime people get nervous," King said. "I think they start spending more time together. Well, it can lead to an increase in family size."
The Sellers family survived the storm and welcomed their newborn Eve this month, after the hurricane forced the family apart last year.
"She was six pounds, 11 ounces and 20 inches," Stacey Sellers described her newborn baby.
Dad Brandon Sellers said he had to work during the storm. "I stayed behind and she came back after the majority of the town had power again," he said.
They said little Eve arrived nine months after Stacey and Brandon were reunited.