Tornado Victims Without Power Getting Charged for Electricity

After surviving a deadly tornado and losing your home the last thing on the victims mind is probably paying the electric bill.

But that doesn’t mean that companies will stop from sending out their bills.

While clean up continues across North Texas, storm survivors got a surprising bill from electric providers.

In one Facebook post one resident wrote she was charged for power after the tornado knocked it down from her home.

She posted: "I'm pretty sure I didn’t have power the last four days.”

Yolanda Inboden says her parents were surprised that even after the tornado hit, their house alarm kept going off days later.

"I think they were more in shock of everything and still trying to cope with what has happened."

She had to step in to handle her parent’s affairs.

“If you’re not using a service like internet, cable, and alarm just cancel it,” said Inboden. “I finally told her why you don’t call the electric company, you don’t have electricity here.”

The big message to people dealing with storm damage is to call every company that might send them a bill.

"It's really difficult to understand who is affected,” said TXU Energy spokesperson Juan Elizondo. “That's why it’s so important for people to call their provider and let them know so we can help them as much as we can."

Customers can expect a bill even if they don’t use power.

"A lot of electricity plans have standard charges, they are monthly charges that help maintain an account,” said Elizondo.

If Oncor cuts off power it’s still the customer’s responsibility to cancel services to avoid bills.