When her son was still in bed at two in the afternoon last Tuesday, under a pile of blankets in his unheated motorhome, Maria Elisa Pineda did not worry since Cristian Pavon, 11, was known to sleep late, as his mother explained to Univision.
However, when Pineda moved the boy, he did not respond. By then it was too late. Cristian was pronounced dead that afternoon in Conroe, Texas, and authorities are investigating whether the otherwise healthy boy died of hypothermia after the family home was without power over the weekend in the raging storm. the state.
It was fine, Pineda told Univision. I never imagined this could happen. We think it was because of the cold because he was fine. He had dinner, played, and went to bed. Cristian is one of the youngest victims of the winter storms that left millions of people without electricity or water last week. So far, at least 47 people have died in the freezing weather, a number that authorities say is likely to rise as freezing temperatures continue.
At least 30 of those deaths occurred in Texas, The Washington Post reported a state where ongoing power outages have exposed residents to dangerously cold temperatures. Some have died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning to their ovens or trucks to keep warm. Others, like a 75-year-old man in Crosby Texas, whose oxygen machine stopped working after his home lost power, have been found dead from hypothermia inside their homes or cars.
Cristian, who was born in the coastal city of Tela, Honduras, came to Texas in 2019 to reunite with his mother, whom he hadn’t seen in over a year. On Monday, he saw snow for the first time after the winter storm dropped a cape in his backyard. For about half an hour, the sixth-grader, who was wearing a red winter jacket with a hoodie, hopped in the snow, leaving small steps behind him as his mother took photos and recorded the occasion with her phone. That’s why I was excited to be out Pineda told the Houston Chronicle. “Everything was fine. I was happy that day. I was not sick at all.
