HOUSTON (FOX 26) -
For nearly a month, Etherline Roberson has been frustrated at the site of her and her neighbor's backyards.
Those yards are littered with large piles of debris and tree limbs.
"I'm an 89-year-old woman," Roberson said. "How am I gonna get out here and move that?"
In June, there was a power outage in the Garden City area where Roberson lives. She said CenterPoint Energy cleared away several large tree branches off a power line. Those branches came from a tree on city property.
"That morning, I got up, all of these were in the ditch, so I called the man and he said, ‘I'm just a contractor for CenterPoint.' I said, ‘But yeah, you left limbs'."
Eventually, that contractor came back and moved the tree limbs from the ditch and onto Roberson and her neighbor's properties.
Roberson's neighbor, also a senior citizen, wasn't home, but we spoke with her daughter, Desiree Phillips.
"It's bad when they do elderly people like this," Phillips said. "They're on a fixed income. They're trying to do the best they can with what they have."
She said her mother and Roberson were told they were responsible for having those tree limbs removed from their property even though CenterPoint cut them down in the first place. It'll cost them $300 to $400.
"She can't afford to have this done," she said.
The seniors called FOX 26 News to try and get some kind of resolution in their stand-off with CenterPoint.
Within a matter of hours, CenterPoint Energy spokesman Floyd Leblanc stepped in and made things right with the seniors. Leblanc, who initially said the residents were responsible for removing the trees from their property, decided to make a one-time exception.
It's an exception Desiree Phillips is glad to see.
"I'm glad they're doing it. They could've done this a long time ago. This could've been done without contacting you. Have some consideration for elderly people."
This time, CenterPoint's Leblanc did. Now, these seniors can rest with a clean backyard.
