MD Anderson outpatient clinics are closed through Friday.

MD Anderson Cancer Center’s outpatient clinics, both inside the mammoth hospital and around the city, will remain closed through Friday despite suffering no direct flooding damage and forecasts for sunny weather in the next few days.

The problem is that some 40 percent of its care providers, particularly nursing staff and technicians, have been unable to get to work because of conditions in their neighborhoods, officials of the famed cancer center said Tuesday. That amounts to roughly 800 staffers, officials said.

“Now that recovery has begun, ambulatory care teams are identifying those patients with the most urgent medical or treatment needs and directly contacting them,” Dr. Karen Lu, MD Anderson senior vice president and chief medical officer, said in a statement Wednesday. “As we return to normal operations, we are contacting patients to reschedule appointments.”

Patients concerned about a delay in care should contact their care team “to understand necessary next steps” and determine how quickly an appointment can be scheduled or if they should be treated locally for the time being.

MD Anderson, like all Texas Medical Center institutions, was inaccessible Sunday after flooding made surrounding roads impassable. The roads dried up Monday, but all hospitals in the complex were still hampered by staffing shortages.

It was unclear whether MD Anderson’s clinics will open Saturday, Labor Day or Tuesday. Lu said the situation is still fluid.

During an average week, MD Anderson schedules more than 13,000 outpatient appointments, consultations and surgery cases, officials said. Many of those appointments involve infusions of chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

The officials said high-water vehicles have been sent to transport transfusion technicians, nurses, pharmacists and lab technicians, as well as blood supplies and medications.

There are currently 538 inpatients and 15 emergency center patients at MD Anderson.