Exterior Water Service Line Coverage
$7.95/mo
$23.85/qtr
$95.40/yr
On a Saturday in late July, Tulsa, Oklahoma, got hit with a bit of rain. That was no big deal for local resident Cindy D. – she used it as a reason to lounge in bed a bit longer until the weather cleared. Imagine her surprise when a neighbor started banging on her door. Unbeknownst to Cindy, an electrical wire connected to the outside of her home was vigorously sparking, and it looked like the house was minutes from catching fire.
Trying to remain calm and not give in to panic, Cindy gathered what she could and ran out of the house to call the fire department. Luckily, Cindy and her home were safe. In the hours that followed, she reached out to her utility, Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), who told her the electrical wires were no longer safe and had to be cut immediately to help keep her home safe. Safe… but without power. To get things back to normal, Cindy had to do something she wasn’t prepared to manage – work with an electrical contractor and PSO to have new wires installed to get the electricity back on.
Cindy lives on a fixed annual income of just over $12,000 a year, which doesn’t leave much wiggle room for unexpected repairs, especially costly ones like this. On top of that, she suffers from extreme vertigo, making a home with no air conditioning or working refrigeration a danger to her health. Cindy spent the weekend trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. After the weekend passed, she reached out to the City of Tulsa’s Working in Neighborhoods department for assistance – and that’s where she learned about the HomeServe Cares Foundation.
“I’ve been having a rough time lately, and I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with this company.”
“I’ve been having a rough time lately, and I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with this company.” “I headed to the park to sit under some trees in the shade to beat the heat, and filled out HomeServe’s application,” said Cindy. “I was at a point where if I didn’t receive help, I quite literally would be without a home until further notice. I needed a miracle.”
Cindy’s application was approved within one day of receiving it, and the HomeServe Cares team was quickly hard at work coordinating the installation of new exterior electrical wiring to reconnect her home to the PSO grid. 3-H Electric, a local, vetted member of HomeServe’s contractor network, was quickly dispatched to Cindy’s house and replaced the line.
“I couldn’t believe it; I was in a state of shock,” Cindy told us. “A lot of the time, people want to help, but they can’t. And then you have situations like this – a company who owed me nothing has done more for me than I ever would have imagined. I am forever grateful.”
Cindy had to wait a couple days for PSO to inspect the job and complete the connection after the work was done by 3-H. Cindy spent a night or two at a local hotel supported by the Red Cross, so she didn’t have to live in the house without air conditioning. Within a few days of the incident, the inspection was complete, and Cindy was safely back in her home keeping cool.
“Honestly, there are no words for how overcome with emotion I feel being back in my home,” said Cindy. “I’ve been having a rough time lately, and I feel so lucky to have crossed paths with this company. Thank you, HomeServe.”
