Despite new city ordinance putting disconnections on hold, Brownsville PUB customer left without power
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A Brownsville woman says her electricity was cut off less than an hour before city commissioners voted to halt all disconnections for lack of payment.
The woman — who asked to be referred to as “Daisy” for fear of retribution — said her calls to the Brownsville Public Utilities Board for answers were futile.
“[They said] that there was nothing they could do, just to make sure I kept with my payments,” Daisy recalled.
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Thanks to a good Samaritan, Daisy and her three children are staying in a hotel. Daisy said she and her 2-year-old son were recently diagnosed with pneumonia, so the hotel is a necessity to power her son's treatments.
“It was getting hard to control his fevers with a lack of water and power,” Daisy said.
Daisy said she explained her situation to Brownsville PUB, but even after city officials assured disconnections for non-payment had come to an end, the company declined to reconnect her.
“They told me I had to come up with at least $450 for reconnection,” Daisy said, adding that she’s tried to get financial help through other resources.
“Everywhere I go they say there is a waiting time of four to six weeks to get assistance, “Daisy said. “But you have to be connected to receive that assistance, and again we’re disconnected, so we don’t qualify for those resources.”
Daisy said she doesn’t want to keep taking advantage of the generosity shown by others and is planning on going home again with her children.
With the power still out and orders of bed rest from her doctor, Daisy said she’s worried about what could be next for her unborn child.
“I have already had the threats of miscarriages, and I’m just trying to keep stress-free like the doctor said,” Daisy said. “But it’s not really working.”
Shortly before the story aired on Channel 5 News, Daisy said she wound up finding some help paying the $450 to reconnect her water and power.
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