Babies Discovered on Houston Sidewalk Amid Winter Storm; Mother Found Intoxicated, Police Say

In a rare snowstorm in Houston, a sheriff’s deputy said that they found a drunk woman and her two young children lying on the sidewalk.

Sheriff Ed Gonzalez wrote in a post on X that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office had received a 911 report about a woman and her two children who were lying on a sidewalk in Northwest Houston on Tuesday morning. According to the post, the responding deputies found that the two children were between the ages of one and two months.

Gonzalez said that emergency responders “quickly helped the two babies who suffered from cold-related injury.” He said that the mother, whom deputies discovered to have an open alcoholic beverage nearby, was intoxicated.

A spokesperson for the department said that the Harris County District Attorney’s Office accepted the charges of endangering an infant on the mother after being contacted by the Sheriff’s Office.

How Bad Is It In Houston?

The National Weather Service reported on Monday that snow is not common in Houston. Instead, a “once-in-a-generation” winter storm called “Enzo”, which is pounding the Gulf Coast is to blame.

The weather service in Houston stated that this will be the biggest winter storm to hit the Greater Houston Area since at least 1960.

The Weather Channel reported that as of Tuesday morning, Houston had accumulated between one and two inches of snow, far less than the 20 inches it saw in February 1895 during its largest snowstorm.

“Since 1921, the biggest snow total they’ve seen is 3 inches set in January 1940 and again in February 1960,” according to The Weather Channel.

Houston winter storm kills “Unhoused” Man

Gonzalez stated in another X post that an “unhoused” man was found dead in the parking lot of a restaurant on Tuesday morning. According to the sheriff, it is “likely” that weather was a factor in the man’s death.

Officials have said that Houston is still under extreme cold alert until Tuesday evening.