Houston grandfather dies from overheating without power

HOUSTON - 78-year-old Oscar Rodriguez died on July 10 of Hyperthermia after being found unresponsive in his powerless home. 

His family says they got a notification that the power was restored at his northwest Houston home near Fulton and Patton St., but the power never turned on. 

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"I mean it's hurtful. There are no words that can explain," said his granddaughter, Ana Pena.  

His family says his son went to check on him midday on July 10 and Oscar was just fine. But, when his son returned in the evening to check on Oscar again, he was unresponsive. 

Oscar was rushed to the hospital where he passed away. His cause of death was determined to be Hyperthermia due to environmental exposure following residential power loss during Hurricane Beryl. 

"My grandpa was loving, caring and hardworking, like he's going to be very, very missed," said Pena. "If anything good can come out of this, it's just shedding light that our elderly deserve better."

He is one of at least eight victims in the Houston area who have died for the same reason. 

"I just hope CenterPoint could have done a lot better than what they're doing," said Pena. 

More than 2 million Houstonians lost power after Beryl tore through the city. At the time this article was written, eight days later, 50,000 are still without power. 2.2 million have been restored.