‘I got a little bit of hope back’: KFOR viewers pay to get woman’s power restored
STILLWATER, Okla. (KFOR) — After seeing a KFOR story about a woman whose power was shut off by the City of Stillwater a week early—leaving her with no way to power a critical medical device—multiple News 4 viewers stepped up to help restore the woman’s power, and more.
Thanks to those viewers’ donations, the city restored the woman’s power on Thursday.
Both viewers say they do not want any recognition or thanks, telling News 4 they felt God told them they needed to help.
When News 4 spoke to Carolyn Davis on Tuesday, she was helpless.
“I feel like they just don’t care whether I live or die,” Davis told News 4 on Tuesday.
She was out of hope, after the City of Stillwater shut off her house’s power and demanded she pay several hundred dollars—a week before the Feb. 20 cutoff date they sent her in the mail.
The shutoff came after months of Davis receiving extremely high electric bills, some as much as $500 for one month of usage.
She lives in a small, one-bedroom house.
The premature power cutoff Tuesday left her with no way to power her critically important breathing machine.
“I feel like they just don’t care whether I live or die,” Davis said Tuesday.
Her story gave News 4 viewer Charles Evans a funny feeling.
“It brought tears to my heart and it just it really was a lightning bolt to me,” Evans said.
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A lightning bolt—he says he’s sure was sent from God—letting him know he had a purpose.
“The Lord sparked my heart and I wanted to give her $200 to have her electricity turned back on,” Evans said.
Evans is a disabled veteran. He says Davis’s situation hits really close to home for him.
“I was living in my car for over a year,” Evans said. “And the folks who put this roof over my head… I love them.”
He’s paying that same generosity forward, even though he doesn’t have much.
“[The $200] is my rainy-day fund,” he said. “That’s my 401K. But when the Lord speaks, my heart says, Bless someone, I’ll do it.”
Evans shared that only after News 4 asked him to share his story. Evans said he wants to make it very clear he is not seeking any recognition or thanks. Instead, he says he is just doing what he feels God put him on earth to do.
As News 4 made the drive from Evans’ home to Stillwater to bring Davis that money, another viewer called.
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The viewer said she also felt spoken to by God. She committed to paying off the rest of Davis’s balance and her next bill too.
As of Thursday afternoon, the balance had been paid and the city restored power to her home.
When News 4 stopped by Davis’s house to let her know about the viewers’ donations, her hopelessness quickly became ethereal joy, held together by unwavering faith.
“Thank you,” Davis said. “We’ve just been praying all night, all night long… To know that that gentleman, that lady reached out like that, it just it really touched me because they really didn’t have to help us. And that just… I got a little bit of hope back.”
News 4 asked Davis what she most looked forward to about having her power back.
“Being able to do my breathing treatments and being able to call my mom and tell her just how wonderful people can be,” Davis said. “It really means a lot. God bless.”
No longer helpless, Davis says she feels called to now be a blessing for someone else.
“And when we’ve got it, we will help the next person that needs help,” Davis said.
News 4 heard back from the City of Stillwater after the first story about Davis aired.
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A city spokesperson sent News 4 the following statement:
The City of Stillwater Utility and Billing Department works with customers in effort to resolve past due amounts, avoid disconnection of services, and resolve returned payments. We understand life happens and strive to meet the needs of our customers in the most responsive and helpful ways possible. When a customer experiences financial difficulties, there are multiple community resources that offer assistance.
We highly encourage our customers who experience medical conditions that require the use of life-sustaining equipment to participate in our, “Medical Alert Program.” The program is designed to provide customers with reasonable prior notice of power interruption due to scheduled service maintenance to allow time to secure back-up power for medical equipment. It also offers all reasonable attempts for payment arrangements to avoid disconnections.
The utility customer referenced in your story had multiple conversations with City staff and was provided with any and all available programs and consideration to avoid disconnection, as we do with all of our customers. The utility service at [Davis’s address] was disconnected on Feb. 13 (originally scheduled for Feb. 8), due to a returned payment on a past due amount. The disconnect notice you mentioned for Feb. 20, is for another past due amount.
Dawn Dodson, City of Stillwater spokesperson
Davis maintains she paid the amount needed to keep her power on past the original Feb. 8 cutoff date.
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She says she never received notice her payment was returned or that the cutoff date would be moved back up because of it.
The most recent notice she received from the city was the letter notifying her to pay a minimum amount of $48.18 by February 20 to keep her power on. That letter did not mention anything about a returned payment.
News 4 asked the city why—regardless of whether the amount to avoid a February 8 cutoff went through or not—the city didn’t wait until February 20 to cut off her power, since their most recent communication said that would be the date.
The city spokesperson referred News 4 to the statement she sent.
A spokesperson with Stillwater’s utilities department told News 4 when they restored Davis’s power Thursday, they replaced her meter with a new one.
They said they will inspect her old meter to see if it had any issues that may have led to her bills being so high.
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