While the February winter storm impacted nearly all Texans, it put people with disabilities in perhaps the most difficult spots.
A new survey revealed the stories of people who struggled to keep medical equipment on and temperature-sensitive medicine safe, along with everything else Texans had to do to survive the storm.
Others with hearing or visual impairments had difficulty just getting emergency information.
Just like for most families, the winter storm brought at least some memories worth hanging onto for the Wamsleys in North Richland Hills.
“Like most Texans, I think we were very excited to get some snow,” Lindsey Wamsley said.
But Wamsley and her husband had other worries.
One of their children has a hearing condition and wears hearing aids, two others are immunocompromised, while 5-year-old Addie has leukemia.
Wamsley was worried not just about power and water, but also about access to the hospital.
Texas lawmakers are still working on legislation in response to the storm.
People with disabilities, and their advocates, hope their voices are part of that process.
“It was tough to read it, and my heart goes out to those folks. Really tough to read it,” said Sean Jackson, with Disability Rights Texas. “There are a lot of community lifelines and critical systems that they depend upon every day to live their lives, so when they’re cut off from that, it’s a major issue.”
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