Angleton – A massive windstorm, combined with heavy rains, ripped through Angleton on March 15, tearing down trees and pulling entire buildings apart. One homeowner ended up with a huge repair bill and she contacted KPRC 2′s Bill Spencer for help.
Tonika Sasser, who is blind and lives alone with her four dogs, could only sit trembling inside her small home praying she would survive.
“I really can’t explain it. It was really bad and really loud, almost sounded like a train,” Tonika said.
Luckily Tonika was not hurt, but a massive tree in her backyard came crashing down, tearing down the power lines and completely destroying the electrical box that feeds all electricity to her house.
The damage made Tonika’s home unsafe and unlivable.
“I mean, I was homeless, homeless and trying to find someone’s couch to sleep on every night,” Tonika said.
For weeks, Tonika had no place to stay and was unable to return home because of the fried wiring at her home.
She contacted the United Way, the Salvation Army and the American Red Cross.
The Red Cross was able to help with money for temporary lodging at a few motels and money for food and medical needs, but no one was able to help with the $20,000 repair bill it was going to take to make her home livable and safe again.
That’s when she went to Pamela Goodson with the Coalition for Barrier Free Living and Pamela contacted the Spencer Solves It team.
“She was just terrified she was going to lose her home altogether and to be honest I didn’t know what to do. That is until someone suggested I contact Bill Spencer,” Pamela said.
That’s when Pam contacted Bill Spencer and he immediately contacted the electrical pros at Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning and Electrical.
The people at Abacus made a plan to make all of the repairs, more than $20,000 worth, for Tonika absolutely free.
Bill Spencer stopped by to see the work in progress. Up on the roof, crews reconnected the main electrical lines from the power provider to Tonika’s home. Inside they rewired and fixed dangerous, damaged electrical outlets. Abacus didn’t stop there.
“So, she doesn’t even have any smoke detectors, she’s never had any smoke detectors,” Jessica Russell, Abacus Plumbing, Air Conditioning and Electrical.
The team installed brand new smoke detectors all over the house.
“We wanted her to be 100% safe, so we ripped out everything. It was about two day’s worth of work with just a four-man crew just to get it up to safety standards,” said Steven Ashley, Abacus Plumbing, Air conditioning and Electrical.
In the end, thanks to Abacus, Tonika can rest easy knowing the home she loves is now repowered and safe.
“I was really scared I was going to lose everything. Thank you so much,” Tonika said.
In the meantime, if you are ever hit with storm damage and unable to afford to make repairs, the American Red Cross has a great resource.
*If you are needing help after storm damage from Hurricane Beryl, the Greater Houston Disaster Alliance is also helping organize relief efforts.
