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A woman has been left heartbroken after losing her beloved sister, who died from scorching temperatures amplified by power outages in Texas after Hurricane Beryl’s devastation.
Janet Jarrett said that her 64-year-old sister, Pamela Jarrett, who relied on a wheelchair and feeding tube daily, had died due to the heat as mass power outages ripped through Texan communities days and weeks after Hurricane Beryl made landfall.
Pamela’s cause of death was confirmed as heat-related by the Harris County Medical Examiner after she died on July 11 in the home she shared with her younger sister Janet, who also was her caretaker.
"It could have been avoided, and she didn’t have to die that day," Janet Jarrett said through tears to ABC13.
The sisters lived in Spring, Texas, and spent days without power after the hurricane knocked out the power in nearly 3 million homes as downed trees and poles caused devastation to power lines.
Weeks after Beryl came and went, leaving a path of devastation in its wake, repair workers were still trying to restore the power – meanwhile, a dangerous heat wave encroached on the state in the week after the hurricane.
Janet had to do everything she could to make sure her sister’s feeding tube device stayed charged while the power was out in their home, and had to battle the scorching temperatures hitting the state by keeping Pamela cool.
She said she used ice, water and cool bed showers to try and alleviate the impacts of the heat, but by July 11, Pamela was unresponsive.
The effect of the mass power outages meant that it was very difficult to get enough phone signal to call 911, and by the time an ambulance arrived to see Pamela, Janet said there was not much more she could do.
"As much as I tried to save her, I couldn’t save her," Janet told ABC13.
The heartbroken sister said while her household was on a CenterPoint emergency list, her power wasn’t restored until July 16, five days after the medical examiner’s office confirmed her sister died from the heat.
Describing her sister as “funny” and “very sassy,” Janet told the station she would also remember her sister as being very big on fashion, as she laid out a pearly white dress that Pamela would be buried in.
The heat wave proved to be deadlier than the storm itself as around 23 people have died in Texas due to heat-related complications as a result of the prolonged power outages caused by the Category 1 hurricane that made landfall in the state on July 8, reports say.
While the majority of the power has been restored in affected areas, it may be a while before a finalized storm-related death toll is known.
Lara Anton, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which uses death certificate data to identify storm-related deaths, told The Associated Press that it may not be until the end of July before they have even a preliminary count.
Governor Gregg Abbott sent a letter to CenterPoint on July 16 requesting information from the company, including what actions it will take to reduce or eliminate power outages during future storms and how it will improve communication with its customers before, during, and after a weather event.
“Texans deserve better from their electrical companies, especially during hurricane season. The adequacy of your preparation will be analyzed in the coming months, but the time is now for CenterPoint Energy to improve its practices,” Abbott wrote.
