When the power went out at Ann Foxworth’s home in Austin on February 15, the 71-year old’s phone rang nonstop as friends checked in on her and her husband. Foxworth soon started to worry that the battery on her phone would die, leaving the couple, who are both blind, cut off from vital information, as Winter Storm Uri caused massive power outages across the state.
The couple relies on friends and volunteers to get them to the grocery store or doctor’s appointments and had no way to evacuate their home as it got colder inside. With the roads covered in snow, it became increasingly dangerous for anyone to check on them. Foxworth and her husband decided to stay put until a concerned friend made the trek, taking the couple to their home with heat and power. The next day, with the power back on in their neighborhood, the couple decided to head home—but now, there was no running water. The City of Austin was distributing water at locations around the city, but the Foxworths couldn’t find a way to access it.
“We called 311, and I said, ‘You know, we’re blind. We don’t drive. Can someone bring us some water?’ And they said, ‘Nobody’s really set up for that,’” Foxworth recalls.
