The death of a 93-year-old woman in sweltering heat in a care facility prompts her son to urge protocol changes

KINGWOOD, Texas — A local man is calling for changes to protocols at a Kingwood nursing facility where, he says, his mother died this morning in extreme heat.

During Hurricane Beryl, power went out at The Terraces and was not restored.

Jonathan Sturgis loved and adored his 93-year-old mother, Barbara Sturgis.

“A wonderful woman. The best mother you could have, that’s what many people say. She’s been through a lot,” he said.

Jonathan says his mother was last exposed to the scorching heat in The Terraces.

She died this morning while other residents were being voluntarily evacuated. Jonathan says he is concerned about the way the facility’s management company, Frontier Management, handled the situation.

“No communication before the storm, no communication during the storm and we got an email on Wednesday, two days after the storm,” he added.

He says this is a copy of the email, which reads in part: “Our generator continues to power certain lighting and power sources in both dining rooms and the kitchen. We have installed air conditioning units and fans.”

“I drove up there on Tuesday and had lunch with her (his mother). When I walked into the facility, it seemed pretty reasonable considering they had a backup generator. Temperatures were a little elevated, but under control,” Sturgis said.

However, he says that was not the case until Thursday.

“My mother died on Thursday morning. I got there at 9 a.m. and immediately noticed that it was much warmer in the building,” he said.

When asked by KPRC 2’s Deven Clarke if he thought residents should have been evacuated sooner, Jonathan replied, “Yes. Absolutely no doubt. No doubt at all.”

92-year-old Bob Burgess also lives in The Terraces.

“It was hot, no question, so they had to evacuate because the heat was affecting older people,” Burgess said.

Burgess says his biggest frustration is with CenterPoint, which is prioritizing power restoration “to provide facilities that are critical to safety, health and welfare.” But so far, Burgess says, CenterPoint has not shown up.

“The situation seems to have been mishandled by someone. It took a long time and not much happened,” Burgess said.

We have reached out to Frontier Management about possible changes to communications and evacuation protocols. Someone at corporate headquarters said they would forward our message, but so far we have not received a response.

We also reached out to CenterPoint and while we have not received a response, according to CenterPoint’s restoration tracker, the facility is marked blue, meaning an assessment has been completed. There is still no information on when exactly power will be restored.