Texas officials are asking residents to report any incidents of price increases amid food and water shortages that followed a massive power outage following a winter storm that hit the state this week.
Houston area residents have filed complaints about bottled water and overpriced hotel rooms, according to Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, chief civil prosecutor in Texas’s largest county, and Harris County judge, Linda Hidalgo.
“We saw some anecdotal evidence of outrageous prices on necessary items like food and water, basically, price increases,” Hidalgo told a news conference.
“Whether it’s raising the price of basic necessities, or posting an Airbnb with power for $ 1,000 a night – we can’t imagine anything more cruel than taking advantage of people who are suffering right now in this disaster and have been suffering for days,” added Hidalgo , which asked residents to report cases of abuse.
Within 20 hours of creating a reporting system on Wednesday, Hidalgo and Harris County attorney Christian Menefee said more than 450 complaints of price increases had arrived.
Dallas resident Dashawn Walker, 33, tried in vain to book a hotel room on Tuesday night after his apartment lost power during the storm. He was forced to drive 30 miles north to an extended stay hotel in the suburb of Lewisville, where an overnight stay cost $ 474.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “I mean, why would you go to hotels in the middle of a crisis? Like, man, come on. Everyone is just trying to survive and they are capitalizing on a crisis, and it is so unfair people who really can’t afford it.”
Raising the cost of essential items like food, fuel, shelter, medicine or building materials to “an exorbitant or excessive price” is illegal in Texas after the federal or state emergency declaration. Violators can face fines of up to $ 250,000.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton made a similar appeal, asking residents to report rising prices or other storm-related fraud to the state’s consumer protection hotline.
To make matters worse, some 27,000 Houston area residents received a $ 202,102.16 bill this week from CenterPoint Energy, according to NPR. But the e-mail account was a flaw, the natural gas supplier said.
“You don’t owe this amount”, CenterPoint tweeted, attributing the error to a “technical problem” caused by the Houston power outage. The recognition was received with humor and scorn on social media, with one person replying, “I am not willing to pay a penny above $ 100,000.00 for gasoline this month. Please adjust your bill accordingly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.