HOUSTON (AP) As Hurricane Beryl tore through Houston this summer, Kimberly Rubit had one thing on her mind: her daughter, who was seriously disabled.
After Beryl knocked out power to their home for ten days, the 63-year-old labored tirelessly to keep Mary, 42, from roasting without air conditioning, water, or lighting. During the prolonged outage, at least three dozen additional persons died from heat-related causes.
“It was awful,” Rubit remarked. I’m over it.
According to an AP study of official data, as the warming atmosphere carries more water and triggers more violent storms, electric networks have crumbled more frequently and outages have gotten longer across the United States. A bomb cyclone this week triggered almost half a million outages in the Pacific Northwest.
According to Diana Hernandez, a professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University who specializes in studying energy instability in American homes, people with disabilities and chronic illnesses are especially vulnerable when the power goes out. Many of them live in homes that lack the weatherizing and backup power supplies necessary to better withstand extreme heat and cold, or they are unable to pay their electricity bills.
Patricia Johnican smiles as she talks about her family during an interview at Commons of Grace Senior on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo / Annie Mulligan)
Image courtesy of Annie Mulligan/Associated Press
According to Hernandez, one in three American households is actively attempting to prevent a disconnection or dealing with its fallout at any given time.
As another winter draws near, residents of Texas are terrified of another blackout such to the one that occurred during a 2021 severe freeze that killed more than 200 people and left millions without electricity for days. According to ERCOT, which oversees the majority of the state’s electricity grid, rolling blackouts could still occur from a winter storm that strong despite efforts to increase resilience.
In addition, Beryl left millions without power for days, making many people ill in the scorching July heat. Houston’s electricity company, CenterPoint Energy, came under fire from both local and state authorities who said it should have communicated better, taken more precautions like pruning trees before the storm, and fixed downed power lines sooner. The Texas attorney general is still looking into the utility’s reaction.
With the single objective of creating the nation’s most robust coastal grid—one that can better endure the severe weather of the future—CenterPoint claims it is currently concentrating on enhancing resilience, customer communications, and community relationships.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Texas are discussing whether or not assisted living facilities should be subject to stricter regulations. One recommendation is to mandate that they have adequate emergency generator fuel to run life-saving devices and maintain safe inside temperatures during a prolonged outage, similar to what Florida did following a scandal involving nursing home deaths caused by hurricanes.
This month, the congressional group also examined emergency responses. According to state and local officials, nursing homes and facilities that are regulated performed better than areas like senior communities that aren’t closely monitored. This meant that private residences and hundreds of apartment buildings serving the elderly were probably more vulnerable to power outages and food shortages.
“We need to figure out how to mark these facilities or get it into the computer dispatch systems,” stated Texas Division of Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd. “There are a lot of locations in our own city that we are unaware of until that facility receives a 911 call,” he said.
Since 2003, Texas energy companies have been obligated to notify medically fragile families in advance of planned outages by submitting a form with a doctor’s clearance. However, the utilities were not required by that law to provide these names to local or state emergency management organizations.
According to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, 38 states have regulations designed to avoid disconnections during extreme weather, and many more have comparable regulatory obligations. Residents in Colorado who are medically vulnerable are shielded from being disconnected for a maximum of ninety days. In Arkansas, if temperatures are predicted to rise beyond 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius), utilities are not allowed to cut off power to anyone 65 years of age or older.
According to CenterPoint’s public filings, Rubit and her daughter live in one of the approximately 3,000 families in Houston where unstable power can soon become a life-or-death situation because at least one person needs an electrically powered medical device. When these homes fall behind on their bills, the utility offers payment arrangements to keep the energy running.
Community members at Commons of Grace, a senior living facility in Houston, where outages have become a disturbing aspect of life for over 100 people, find little comfort in the utility’s efforts, according to Belinda Taylor, who leads a nonprofit organization that collaborates with the managing firm.
According to Taylor, “I’m just frustrated that we didn’t get the services that we needed.” The suffering we have endured is absurd.
When the electricity went out, Sharon Burks, a resident of Commons of Grace, said it got intolerable. She is sixty-three and suffers from shortness of breath due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is treated with a breathing machine. She was forced to utilize her breathing pump, which runs on batteries and isn’t designed to be used for extended periods of time.
Burks stated, “I didn’t have any expectations from CenterPoint.” We always receive it last.
The Associated Press, 2024. All rights reserved. All rights reserved. It is prohibited to publish, broadcast, rewrite, or redistribute this content without authorization.
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