BAYTOWN, Texas (KTRK) — It has been 15 days since Hurricane Beryl struck, and many are still struggling without power.
Elite Spectrum ABA, a clinic that provides therapy for children with autism, has been without electricity, leaving families in distress and employees without paychecks. The heat has caused the floors inside the clinic to buckle.
“You have a heart for this, and right now, my hands are tied,” said co-owner Lakeshia Wells. “There’s nothing I can do.”
Fifteen families are currently without therapy for their children, aged between two and 15, many of whom are nonverbal.
“They need that routine that they set. That’s important to them,” Wells explained. “When that routine is thrown off, we start seeing more behaviors that we probably wouldn’t see or that we started to work on and we weren’t seeing.”
The clinic’s 12 employees have not been paid during this period.
“We look them in the eye, and we say, ‘We’re going to provide a job for you,’ and now it’s like, ‘We don’t have power,'” said co-owner Tamara Alexander.
According to Wells, they repeatedly contacted CenterPoint, who claimed their service ticket was closed and that power had been restored, which was not the case.
Crews arrived last week to address the issue, but as of Monday, CenterPoint officials stated that repairs were incomplete, preventing power restoration.
This issue affects many across southeast Texas. When the power entry point to a building is damaged, a licensed electrician must first fix it. Then, a permit from the city is required before power can be restored. This process can be lengthy, and the clinic owners have not received responses from the property owners.
attempts to contact the property owners also went unanswered.
“It kind of feels like we’re in the pandemic without COVID going on,” Alexander said. “We’re completely shut down, and there’s nothing that we can do.”
