In the week since hurricane barrel unleashed devastating rain and
flooding on Southeast Texas, a new threat emerged as Texans
struggle in triple digit temperatures with no power and no
air conditioning.
Fox News correspondent Madison Scarpino has more.
When Hurricane Barrel hit Texas earlier this month, there were
a number of initial fatalities caused by floodwaters and falling
trees.
In the weeks that followed, a new kind of threat
emerged as prolonged power outages left Texans unable to get
relief from the brutal heat.
As temperatures soared in their home, Janet Jarrett did everything
she could to keep her sister Pamela cool.
My thermostat said 9798, so I would open the windows
trying to get breeze to go through as much as
I could.
But on their third morning without power, Janet awoke to
find Pamela gasping for breath.
She died just four days later.
She was 60, four years old, and she just had
a birthday not too long in April.
The problem was not having no electricity.
You know, we didn't have any air.
At the height of the outages, nearly 3 million homes
and businesses were without power.
The lights have since been turned back on for most,
but the slow pace of the recovery put thousands at
risk and put the power company Center Point Energy under
a microscope over whether it did enough to prepare.
If they had cut back some of these trees from
the lines, it wouldn't cause as much damage.
And they've been telling them for years to do these
things and they haven't done it.
Half of the deaths attributed to BARREL in Harris County
have been heat related, and the total number is still
likely to climb even further in New York.
Madison, Scarpino.
Fox News.