Texas high school sweethearts Ramona Ison, 71, and Monway Ison, 72, were just weeks away from celebrating their 52nd wedding anniversary when tragedy struck.
Now, their only child is mourning the loss of her parents, who were found dead on June 16, days after their air conditioner broke inside their Baytown mobile home during this summer’s deadly heatwave.
“Honestly, I think it was just so fast,” Roxana Flood, 51, tells PEOPLE. “I think they thought that they were going to be okay.”
As her parents were private people, Flood says no one in the family was aware that the couple “had problems with their air conditioner.”
She believes their air conditioning unit likely went out on June 12. The next day, her parents had John Moore, a home service company, come out to inspect it and were told it would cost between $1,400 – $1,600 to fix.
“My parents didn’t have the money to do the repairs,” she says.
So, Flood says her mother went to her local community credit union to apply for a $2,000 loan, which she got approved for and picked up that Thursday.
That day, her parents’ neighbor, Eddie Phillips, saw them and chatted with her father on the porch for a while.
“My mom was in the living room with a fan on her. … She looked really hot,” Flood recalls being told, adding that the neighbor offered to host them, but they declined.
The next morning, Flood says Phillips noticed Ramona wasn’t out walking her dog, Belle, around the mobile home community.
“When he didn’t see her that morning, he went over and knocked and banged on windows and stuff, and then called the police to come out and do a welfare check on them,” she says.
Due to a lack of probable cause, police were unable to break down their door, Flood says, but eventually one of the responding officers caught “a glimpse through one of the windows” and noticed Belle.
The fire department was then called to break inside and all three were found dead.
“I think their dog had passed from heat stroke, and I think they were getting ready to leave,” Flood says. “I think they knew it was time to go because the heat inside the home was just brutal.”
The Baytown Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE that Baytown EMS and detectives responded to the home on Colonial Drive, which led to the gruesome discovery. According to the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences, the couple died from hyperthermia.
While the medical examiner was at the home, Flood alleges John Moore showed up to do the repairs.
Although she doesn’t blame them, she believes companies “should be held to a standard of warning people” about the dangers of extreme heat and that trying to withstand high temperatures indoors without air conditions can be deadly.
Other report;
The brutal Texas heatwave has claimed the lives of five other Harris County residents since June, according to records obtained by PEOPLE from the Harris County Institute for Forensic Sciences.
According to AccuWeather, the high on the day Ramona and Monway died in Baytown was 93 degrees.
Michael Mann, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue that people experiencing intense heat should be cautious about their activities.
“It’s too hot for human beings in these places to be outside for extended periods of time,” says the climate scientist, “especially the young and the elderly.”
Heat-related deaths are one of the leading causes of weather-related fatalities in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are about 1,300 deaths related to heat each year.
Flood said her parents were generally active and enjoyed family gatherings and celebrations, although her father had trouble keeping his balance due to hydrocephalus, a condition caused by a build-up of fluid in the brain.
“They were trying to go through Medicare to get a wheelchair and a scooter for him,” Flood says, sharing they also hoped the health insurance program would install railings at the home.
For her mom, the 71-year-old’s five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren “were her life.”
“She had more energy than I did,” Flood says. “She would take them to the waterparks and go do things. She would play games with them all evening and take them to the theater.”
“She was the life of the family, the lifeblood at Christmas gatherings and holidays,” her daughter adds. “She was loud, funny and opinionated.”
Flood believes her parents were no match for the heat, despite the fact that her father worked in the heat for over 20 years at a golf course in Baytown, and her mother spent over 20 years working in restaurants and was around fryers and heat.
Then again, the heat this summer isn’t the typical Texas heat they’re used to.
“Most of the time, homes cool off at night, and you get a reprieve,” she shares. “But with this heatwave, whatever it is that’s happening right here, you’re not getting that at night. Your body’s not getting a chance to cool back down.”
“It was just a mistake,” Flood adds. “It was that, ‘It won’t happen to us,’ kind of a mistake. And it’s a huge loss, and I think I just want people to know.”
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