An elderly Louisiana man whose home had no heat was found dead Wednesday morning, and his wife was hospitalized, after temperatures dropped into the teens overnight.
Paul Maker, 84, of New Roads, was found lying on the floor of his home by sheriff's deputies, the Baton Rouge Advocate reported. Both Maker and his wife were disabled and wheelchair-bound.
The house had no heat, and the couple was afraid to run their space heaters because of the fire hazard, law enforcement officials said. Deputies went to their home Wednesday morning after a neighbor who often checked on the Makers called 911 to request a welfare check.
"He was in the house with his wife, and they were deathly afraid of running their space heaters overnight," Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Bud Torres told the newspaper. "This is just a sad situation."
The couple’s children live in New Orleans and, upon learning of their father’s death and their mother’s hospitalization, could not travel the more than 100 miles to New Roads because most roads in south Louisiana were shut down due to the weather.
"I tried to call them all day yesterday to check on them and never got an answer," Wanda Curly, the couple's daughter, told the Advocate. "I knew the weather was bad, and I knew they couldn't do a lot for themselves."
The temperature in the house was about 20 degrees when deputies got there, Pointe Coupee Chief Deputy Coroner Joe Gannon said. Maker died of hypothermia.
Gannon said he believes Maker’s wife would have succumbed to the cold if the couple’s neighbor had not sought help.
"She would have been next, I think," Gannon said.
Maker’s wife told deputies that she heard her husband fall in their living room around midnight, but could not check on him because she could not get out of bed on her own, the newspaper reported.
Curly said her parents moved to New Roads after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She and her siblings tried in vain to get them to relocate to New Orleans over the years, but the couple, who were together for more than 60 years, valued their independence.
She said her mother would have to move to the city under this week’s tragic circumstances.
"She doesn't have a choice now," Curly said. "She can't stay there by herself."
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