CenterPoint customers resort to throwing away medication, food after storms knock out power

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Two days after a powerful line of storms blew through the Houston area, some CenterPoint customers tell ABC13 they went without power all day on Saturday.

After losing power Thursday night, Klein resident Robin Bennett had to throw away insulin and two freezers worth of food. It's a major safety hazard to leave people without electricity for that long, she told ABC13.

"The rain came, but the strongest part was the wind," Bennett recalled. Bennett knew the storm was coming, but she was not expecting how intense it would be.

RELATED: 13,000 CenterPoint customers still without power after Thursday storm

"The power flicked off a little bit, you know it does that, and then it flicked a second time, and the third time it never came back on," Bennett said.

At the peak, CenterPoint Energy said they had around 230,000 outages, with this part of the county being hardest hit.

Bennett says the nearly 48 hours without power and AC was grueling.

"I am insulin dependent, and when it's hot, your blood sugar drops, so it was constantly dropping," she said.

With elderly neighbors on both sides, she started calling and emailing, but she said CenterPoint kept pushing back her estimated fix time.

She worries 48 hours without power could be catastrophic to someone who relies on refrigerated medication like her or someone who needs medical equipment that plugs in.

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"What about people who are on breathing machines? What about people who need their machines plugged in? They didn't have that," Bennett said.

She is filing an insurance claim but worries it will take a lot of effort to regain what she lost.

"Emotionally, there is not enough money to cover those last two nights. The insurance lady told me to get a letter from CenterPoint. How am I going to get a letter from them? They can't even turn my lights on," Bennett said.

ABC13's Lileana Pearson spoke with CenterPoint. They tell her that with the extent of the storm, their fix rate is considered on time.

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