Baytown couple dies in home after air conditioning failure in Texas heat
Ramona and Monway Ison perished in their home after their air conditioning unit broke, adding to a rising tally of deaths caused by extreme heat this summer.
A Houston-area couple perished in their home after their A/C unit broke, adding to a rising tally of deaths caused by extreme heat in Texas this summer.
A Harris County couple died in their mobile home in June after their air conditioning unit broke, adding to a rising tally of heat-related deaths amid a summer of historic high temperatures. Ramona and Monway Ison were found dead in their Baytown home on June 16. Records from the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office reviewed by ABC 13’s Shannon Ryan show their deaths raise the county’s tally of heat-related deaths to at least seven this year.
Roxana Floods, the Ison’s daughter, told Ryan that the couple, high school sweethearts poised to celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary this week, didn’t have enough money to replace their A/C unit after it failed on June 12. They kept their predicament to themselves and spent the week securing a loan instead of asking for help, Floods said.
Floods said her father’s mobility issues probably made them cautious about leaving the house even as temperatures rose inside. “I think that played a part. That they just felt that they may have been a burden,” the couple’s granddaughter added, per Ryan.
The Isons got a loan on June 15 and scheduled repairs for the next day. “I think they thought that it would be OK,” Floods told Ryan, adding that the couple grew up without air conditioning and were used to working in the heat.
A neighbor grew concerned when Ramona Ison didn’t pass by on her daily morning walk with her dog. “I thought, ‘I better go check on them.’ I banged on the door. No answer. Went over there to the bedroom. Banged on the window. No answer. So that’s why I decided to call the police,” he told Ryan.
According to ABC 13, the medical examiner declared the couple dead inside the mobile home as the A/C technician arrived outside.
“Everybody that I talk to, I tell them to tell their parents, ‘Don’t be too proud to ask for help,'” Floods told Ryan.
