HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — George Harvey spends most of his days confined to bed in a nursing facility near Houston’s Texas Medical Center. Despite the proximity to what CenterPoint Energy deems a priority area for power restoration, Harvey’s daughters say he has been enduring extreme heat inside the nursing home for several days.
“My message to CenterPoint is to please prioritize healthcare facilities like this,” Harvey’s daughter, Allison Evans, told 13 Investigates. “My father’s story is one of many. People rely on power not just to stay cool, but for medical machines, dialysis, and oxygen. It feels like we’ve been abandoned in these facilities.”
13 Investigates contacted 41 of the 98 freestanding nursing facilities in Harris County on Thursday to determine how many were still without power four days after the storm. As of late Thursday morning, at least 11 nursing facilities had not fully restored their power.
Some facilities reported having generators to power life-saving equipment but not air conditioners. Others had portable AC units that were insufficient to cool the entire building. Some facilities mentioned that CenterPoint provided mobile generation units to assist until full power could be restored.
“We prioritize restoration for critical services and evaluate all options, including mobile generation,” CenterPoint told 13 Investigates. “We start with facilities vital to safety, health, and welfare, such as hospitals, water treatment plants, and public service facilities.”
While CenterPoint claims to prioritize nursing homes, the grid’s complexity and the large number of critical customers make this challenging. Additionally, some nursing homes have outdated infrastructure incompatible with the mobile generation units provided.
Greg Shelley, manager of the Harris County Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, noted that about 17 assisted living facilities were also without power, most lacking generators.
According to a 2022 Health and Human Services Commission report, assisted living facilities are not required to have generators. Nursing facilities must have generators for items like oxygen alarm systems, lighting, telephone equipment, and nurse call systems, but not for backup AC.
Shelley advocated for more stringent requirements for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. “We’ve been advocating for rules requiring at least generators in all assisted living facilities and better ones overall to power heating and ventilation systems,” Shelley said. “Older folks are highly susceptible to hyperthermia, and without cooling, they are in real danger.”
Evans, who speaks with her father daily at St. Dominic Village, where he is staying, shared the residents’ concerns. “I talked to him this morning. Everyone is upset and scared because they don’t know what’s going on, why it’s happening, or when it will be resolved,” she said.
St. Dominic’s interim CEO, John Connolly, stated that 70% of residents had electricity as of early Thursday morning. He mentioned that before Thursday, the facility had generators, but they did not power the entire AC system. Spot coolers and chillers were used to help residents stay cool. Connolly noted that initially, there were few updates from CenterPoint, but the company’s engagement improved over the last two days, including providing a generator.
Evans criticized the slow power restoration to nursing homes as a “giant misstep for CenterPoint.” She emphasized, “We all knew the storm was going to hit Houston. This is a wake-up call that our infrastructure needs updating to support these types of storms common here in Houston.”
