April, 2021
By Joanna Toledo, Staff Reporter
Winter Storm Uri impacted the KAC community in many different ways. KAC senior and Cardinal Post staff reporter Yuritsi Jaimes had an especially frightening experience when she found herself trapped at her job overnight while the temperatures outside dropped. Jaimes works at the Heritage at Hunter’s Chase, an assisted living and memory care center in Northwest Austin. Before the storm started, help was needed at the nursing home so she was called in to go to work. While at work, the storm worsened, making it impossible for her to go back home. She was forced spend the night. The Cardinal Post talked to Jaimes about her experience, and the sacrifices essential workers made across Texas during the storm and its aftermath. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
How did the week/weekend during the storm look like? Were you called in for work?
Yuritsi Jaimes: Yes. My schedule for work is Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 8 pm and that Sunday my dad drove me to work because the roads were very slippery due to the ice on the roads. My dad didn’t want to take me to work but my mom insisted.
So while I was at work it started to snow really bad and my dad called me to tell me to call a cab or an Uber, because they just couldn’t come for me. I couldn’t reach any cabs. I then remembered that a resident that lives there has a cab driver, she was talking with him then she handed me her phone and I talked with him, he said that he couldn’t come for me and that other cab drivers weren’t working because it was dangerous.
What happened throughout the day during your work?
YC: When it was like 6 pm our executive director was telling us that none of us could leave because the roads were horrible, so all of us from the second shift were stuck. She then started to give us some rooms so some of us could sleep. The caregivers were only going to rotate so some would go to get some rest for a while, while the others worked because they had been there since 2 pm–and one of my coworkers since 6 am–because it’s an assisting living and memory care and the residents can’t be left alone at all. Then Monday morning my manager woke me up at 6 am so I could help out because no one was going to show up for that day.
Were there any damages? Was there loss of electricity and/or water?
YC: In a hallway water was pouring down from the ceiling. So they had to shut down the water because the pipe had exploded. Then the heater stopped working because it turns out that the water also makes the AC run. So we had no water nor heat. My manager and 4 others told all of us to have a meeting and we did. The executive director told us we were going to evacuate and that again none of us could leave because she needed all of us for help and that they might split up the residents and we would have to go with them to take care of them.
How did you feel about having to stay to help? Were you able to stay to help?
YC: I started to have a panic attack so I called my parents begging them to come for me but the cars we have wouldn’t work so he couldn’t come for me. But then they told me they called my cousins who has a truck. I called him and asked him to come pick me up and he did, so I was finally able to leave. When I got home we didn’t have water either. But at least we had power.
But then, two days later, my cousin and her family came to our house to stay because they didn’t have power and they were freezing. They stayed with us for about three days after their power had been back. We didn’t have water for about four days.
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