Collin County Meals on Wheels giving more care to seniors affected by storm damage

PLANO, Texas – with thousands of North Texans without power AFTER Thunderstorms Tuesday morningCollin County Meals on Wheels is taking extra care to make sure people who can't easily get to the centers are OK.

Deron Boyer with the nonprofit is one of 1,900 people taking to the streets to check on the most vulnerable.

“With the storm damage, 95% of our clients are 60 years old and over 97% live below the poverty level. They are already struggling,” he said. “If they have an outage, they don't have a way to get a generator and run the cables.”

of city ​​of Richardson says 26% of customers were still without power Wednesday afternoon 33 hours after the storm wreaked havoc, downing trees and removing roofs.

IN Plan10,000 customers were still without power. Among them is an apartment complex for the elderly.

The fire department notified Meals on Wheels that they would need to provide additional meals to people who lost all the food in their refrigerators.

Zella Tyson, CEO of Collin County Meals on Wheels, says that in addition to delivering meals, volunteers will also make sure seniors don't get too hot. It is an important check as their phones may not work, leaving them unable to call anyone for help.

“So we're gearing up right now to provide top shelf foods, foods that don't require refrigeration. And we can deliver at a moment's notice, and we're very much in tune with where the older demographic is,” she said. “Meals on Wheels combats isolation. Isolation is such a key determinant of a senior's health.”

With Oncor estimating outages to last through Friday and some into Saturday, Meals on Wheels is also asking for donations to be able to send ice, coolers, power banks for phones and flashlights.