A winter Texan from Canada who recently arrived back in the Valley faced a surprise waiting for her after being away for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Lorraine Wilson has lived at the Sun Valley Village in Cameron County for 20 years. The RV park is her winter home, but she's been away for over a year because of the pandemic. 

"Because we are Canadian, we weren't allowed to come back all last winter and all this year," she said. "Until they opened up the border." 

As soon as she learned she could return to the Valley, Wilson called her energy provider to reconnect her services. But she found out there was a problem.

"They said my meter had been removed," Wilson said. "No one had notified me [that] they were going to do this, and I said, 'why would they do this?'" 

AEP Spokesperson Eladio Jaimes says removing a meter is standard since the account was inactive for more than a year. 

After being told she would have to apply for a permit from the county to have the meter reinstalled, Wilson says she soon learned she would need much more than that to reconnect her services.

Watch the video above for the full story.