Couple ‘miserable’ as heat index reaches 109 inside their home

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Scraps of carpet and wood lay across the floor of Feast and Sheila Bennemie’s Fifth Ward home.

It’s the couple’s attempt to close off cracks on the floor and keep the summer heat out of the poorly insulated 720-square-foot house they have been renting for four years.

So far this summer, Houston has had 33 days where the temperature has reached 100 degrees or higher. That’s away from the all-time record when Houston has 46 triple-digit heat days in 2011.

“It’s so hot you just got to stay in one spot to try to be cool because if you move in the kitchen, you’re going to sweat. You go in the bathroom, you’re going to sweat,” said 80-year-old Feast Bennemie. “It’s kind of miserable. Sometimes I just wanted to walk out of here and then forget it.”

There’s no air conditioning in the couple’s kitchen or bathroom. They just have an oscillating fan and two air conditioning units, one each attached to windows in the living room and bedroom.

The fans can only do so much to fight against the heat seeping into the home through every opening it can find.

Feast said sometimes the inside of their home feels hotter than outside.

He’s not exaggerating.

Last Friday, measured the heat index in the couple’s bathroom, which has a small hole in the ceiling. The reading, which takes into account both temperature and relative humidity, showed a “feels like” temperature of 109 degrees.

Using an infrared thermometer, we also measured the temperature of the bathroom’s walls. It registered at over 100 degrees.

“When you come in, it’s just like outside,” Sheila said.

Kevin Lanza, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center’s School of Public Health, said low-income communities often suffer more than affluent communities during the summer months.

“If you have an older house, you may have more cracks (causing) different ways that air can infiltrate from outside,” he said. “If your air inside isn’t being actively conditioned or cooled through an air conditioning unit, then you truly may be turning your house into an oven.”