HOUSTON– Kimberly Rubit had one priority in mind as Hurricane Beryl ripped through Houston this summer: her severely disabled daughter.
The 63-year-old worked non-stop to keep 42-year-old Mary from overheating without air conditioning, water or light after Beryl cut the power to their home for 10 days. At least three dozen other people suffered heat-related deaths during the long outage.
“It was miserable,” Rubit said. “I’m sick of it.”
Power grids have broken down more frequently and outages have become longer in the U.S. as the warming atmosphere transports more water and causes more destructive storms, according to an AP analysis of government data. In the Pacific Northwest this week a “ bomb cyclone causes about half a million faults.
People with disabilities and chronic health conditions are particularly at risk when power goes out, and many live in homes that lack the weatherproofing and backup power supplies needed to better cope with high temperatures and cold freezes, or that have their electricity bills can’t afford it, said Columbia University sociomedical sciences professor Diana Hernandez, who studies energy instability in American homes.
At any given time, one in three households in the U.S. are “actively trying to avoid a lockdown or dealing with its aftermath,” Hernandez said.
As another winter approaches, people in Texas can’t shake the fear of another power outage like the one during the 2021 cold freeze that left millions without power for days and killed more than 200 people. Despite efforts to build more resilience, a powerful winter storm could still cause rolling power outages, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages most of the state’s power grid.
Beryl also knocked out power to millions of people for days, leaving many sick in the sweltering July heat. Local and state officials criticized CenterPoint Energy, Houston’s utility, saying it should have communicated more clearly and taken more preventative measures, such as pruning trees before the storm hit and repaired electrical cables faster. The utility’s response remains is being investigated by the Texas Attorney General.
CenterPoint says it is now focused on improving resiliency, customer communications and community partnerships with the one defining goal: “to build the country’s most resilient coastal network that can better withstand the extreme weather of the future.”
Texas lawmakers, meanwhile, are debating whether assisted living facilities need more regulation. One suggestion: require that they have enough fuel for an emergency generator to power life-saving equipment and keep indoor temperatures safe during a prolonged power outage, because Florida did so after a scandal over hurricane-related deaths in nursing homes.
The legislative panel also reviewed emergency measures this month. According to city and state officials, regulated facilities and nursing centers fared better than places like senior communities that are not strictly supervised. This meant that hundreds of apartment complexes for older adults, as well as private homes, were likely more susceptible to losing power and running out of food.
“We need to find a way to flag these facilities or get them entered into the computer reporting systems,” said Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. “There are so many places in our own city that we have no idea about until the 911 call comes in there,” he said.
Since 2003, Texas power companies have been required to give medically vulnerable households advance notice of planned outages when they submit a form with a doctor’s approval. But that law did not require the utilities to share those lists with state or local emergency management agencies.
Numerous states have similar legal requirements and 38 have policies aimed at preventing shutdowns during extreme weatherunder the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. In Colorado, medically vulnerable residents are protected from lockdown for up to 90 days. In Arkansas, utilities can’t turn off power to people 65 or older if temperatures are forecast to rise above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Houston, Rubit and her daughter share one of about 3,000 households where unreliable power can quickly turn into a matter of life and death because at least one person needs a medical device powered by electricity, according to CenterPoint public records. The utility is offering such households payment plans to keep electricity on if they fall behind on their bills.
The utility’s efforts provide little relief for community members at Commons of Grace, a senior living center in Houston, where power outages have become a terrifying facet of life for more than 100 residents, said Belinda Taylor, a non-resident runs a profit organization that works together with the management company.
“I’m just frustrated that we weren’t getting the services we needed,” Taylor said. “It’s ridiculous that we had to suffer.”
Sharon Burks, who lives at Commons of Grace, said it became unbearable when the power went out. She is 63 and uses a ventilator for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes shortness of breath. She had to resort to her battery-operated breathing pump, which is not intended for long-term use.
“I didn’t expect anything from CenterPoint,” Burks said. “We’re always the last to get it.”