HOUSTON — Megan Thee Stallion watched Hurricane Beryl's destruction and devastation in her hometown of Houston while thousands of miles away on her Hot Girls Summer Tour overseas.
The stories about people suffering after over 2.5 million customers lost power for days struck a nerve with the H-Town rapper. At least six people between the ages of 50 and 78 died of hyperthermia because they didn't have power in sweltering heat.
That's why Megan and her Pete and Thomas Foundation are partnering with Bread of Life to provide free generators to vulnerable senior citizens in the Houston area.
“It’s been painful to watch the elderly population in Houston suffer without electricity during these devastating storms,” Megan said in a statement. “That’s why we wanted to partner with Bread of Life to take a strategic approach to this problem and secure generators to help protect our senior citizens. We need to do our part to provide our elders with the best resources possible to withstand future emergencies.”
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Given the increasing frequency of severe weather events in Houston, the Pete and Thomas Foundation and BOL established the program to both support senior citizens in the short term and provide a long-term solution that would protect them from future emergencies and power outages.
The Emergency Power Program will work with community partners to identify seniors in need, Dr. Monique Williams with Bread of Life told us.
"We want to expand our support of the most vulnerable people in the city, and Hurricane Beryl, the derecho, and other storms have highlighted that our seniors are in dire need of assistance," said Rudy Rasmus, Executive Director and Founder of Bread of Life, Inc. "Through our partnership with Megan Thee Stallion and her Pete and Thomas Foundation, we hope to provide generators to senior personal care homes this hurricane season. Our goal is to provide generators to our most vulnerable seniors ahead of storms or other events that knock out power so there is no interruption in service."
Megan established the Pete and Thomas Foundation non-profit in February 2022 as a way to uplift and assist women, children, senior citizens, and other underserved communities.
For more information about the Emergency Power Program or to learn how you can support this initiative, please visit www.breadoflifeinc.org.
For more information, visit www.peteandthomasfoundation.org, or follow @PeteThomasFdn on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.
By Thursday, CenterPoint's outage tracker said over 17,000 customers still don't have power.
