As the temperature soared in the Houston-area home Janet Jarrett shared with her sister after , she did everything she could to keep her 64-year-old sibling cool. But on their fourth day without power, she awoke to hear Pamela Jarrett, who used a wheelchair and relied on a feeding tube, gasping for breath. Paramedics couldn't save her, and the medical examiner has determined that her death was caused by the heat.
"It's so hard to know that she's gone right now because this wasn't supposed to happen to her," says Janet Jarrett. Almost two weeks after Beryl hit, heat-related deaths during the prolonged power outages have pushed the number of storm-related fatalities to at least 23 in Texas, per the . While it may be weeks or even years before the full human toll of the storm in Texas is known, understanding that number helps plan for the future.
What is known so far:.
