Seniors died at higher rates after Beryl. Many went days without power in the aftermath

From Houston Public Media:

A resident at Scott Street Lofts Apartments, a senior complex in East Downtown, not only lost power after Hurricane Beryl, but her water stopped working.

“I had water in buckets where I had to use the cold water to clean myself, like everyone else that was here,” she said. She didn’t want to be identified over fear of eviction.

The complex lost power for four days and to stay cool, she spent time volunteering at her church.

“It was scary because I’ve never been through a situation like that before,” she said.

Beryl carved a deadly path through Houston by wiping out power for 2.2 million CenterPoint Energy customers in the region during triple-digit heat indexes. It was the widest power outage in the company’s history.

A power outage can be difficult for anyone, but older adults are especially vulnerable to extreme temperatures — and the numbers after this hurricane show it.

So far, 36 deaths across Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Matagorda and Montgomery counties have been linked to the hurricane. Of those who died, 27 of them were 60 years old or older, meaning 75% of Beryl’s death toll were older adults.

Most deaths happened days after Beryl when hundreds of thousands of Houstonians were stuck in sweltering heat without AC for days, some others — weeks.

Hyperthermia, or overheating, was the main cause of death.

Governor Greg Abbott made several demands from Centerpoint, including a plan by Wednesday to either keep the power on for senior facilities or to quickly restore power to them.

Earlier this week, a state Senate select committee questioned CenterPoint Energy CEO Jason Wells for hours about how the company prepared for the storm and why it failed to maintain its online outage tracker, and what its five-year plan is to protect power lines from trees.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he’s lost patience for CenterPoint.

“No more excuses,” he said. “CenterPoint makes a great return and they’re just going to have to spend it on preparation, operations and recovery.”

At-Large Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer is also pushing for stricter regulations on senior living complexes.

The state requires nursing homes to have generators — but not assisted living and independent living communities. Plummer is working on changing that.

“There has to be a mandate that if you own a senior living facility at a bare minimum, one floor needs to have a generator that cools everything, let their seniors plug everything up, and the elevator needs to be attached to the generator,” she said.

Sharpsview Residence and Rehabilitation Center in west Houston, where Barbara Baltazar has been a resident for more than a year, lost power for four days after Hurricane Beryl. The facility has 86 residents, and they depended on generator-powered fans for cool air.

Plummer emphasized that requiring all senior complexes to have generators is not only about making the facility comfortable, but livable.

“Ten days with no electricity when you potentially need oxygen, it’s now a health risk and it’s inhabitable.”

Although there is attention on ensuring senior facilities are equipped with generators to prepare for power outages, Houstonians are asking CenterPoint to keep the lights on in the first place.

Barbara Baltazar’s mom, who goes by Barbara Elaine, is one of 86 seniors living in Sharpview Residence and Rehabilitation Center. They lost power for six days, but they felt lucky because their facility had a generator that powered life-saving devices and kept a string of fans in the hallway blowing.

“Every single nurse, nurse administrator, handyman, they were drenched in sweat,” Barbara Baltazar said. “Not the residents, the staff.”

Barbara Elaine is 76 and has severe rheumatoid arthritis and after a hip replacement limited her mobility, she moved to Sharpsville.

Barbara Baltazar lives just down the street from the facility, and she said she was shocked when her mom told her they lost power.

“I just absolutely with all my heart, I would have bet you money my mom would have had power because she was in a nursing home,” she said.

Barbara Baltazar said her mother is relatively healthy and strong, but she was concerned for the residents who are more vulnerable. Barbara Elaine’s roommate uses a feeding tube and depends on a machine for oxygen.

State Rep. Jarvis Johnson, who represents parts of Houston, said he also intends to strengthen regulations for senior facilities in the upcoming legislative session.

“We have a real obligation that if you’re going to be living in those facilities, there has to be measures in place,” Johnson said. “Because you’re paying someone to care for you.”

He said he’s expecting CenterPoint to make drastic changes to strengthen Houston’s power infrastructure soon.

“We’re in Houston. We’re in Texas. The storm is coming.”

Andrew Schneider contributed to this story.

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