GALVESTON, Texas – Islanders were warned to come back to Galveston at their own risk, and officials weren't kidding.

UTMB Galveston’s first floor looks like a construction site almost two weeks after Hurricane Ike blasted ashore with 110 mph winds and a storm surge that swept away homes and businesses.

“We took a big hit taking in 3 to 6 feet of water wiping out key operations pharmacy, blood bank,” Dr. Joan Richardson, with the UTMB Emergency Preparedness Office said.

The storm wiped out all hospital operations.

“Anything more than first aid is transferred off island by helicopter,” Dr. Richardson said.

Still, people like Shirley Joseph came to the hospital looking for help for her asthma attack, and help was there.

“Somebody was here; I was happy to see somebody was here,” UTMB Galveston patient Shirley Joseph said.

That’s because a disaster medical team from Massachusetts and different states are at UTMB providing medical help so that employees can go home and assess their damage.

But what they can do is limited.

“We don’t have any operating rooms,” said Dr. Richardson.

And they won’t for a while.

That’s why FEMA asked for some mobile operating rooms to roll in.  They will be ready for patients starting Monday.

“It’s designed to serve as full OR (operating room),” Mark Munroe with Mobile Medical said.  

In the meantime, Dr. Richardson says the emergency room is only prepared to handle small stuff like "people sticking a nail in their foot or getting hit falling down.”

Patients with anything bigger than that, at least over the weekend, will have to go by air or ground to a working hospital.