Arizona Republic Editorial
APS customer died after her electricity was cut off? Not again | Opinion
Nobody should die because they can't pay their electric bill. Arizona can do better.
Laurie Roberts Arizona Republic
Kate Korman was 82 when she was found dead in her Sun City West home.
Six days earlier, Arizona Public Service had shut off her electricity.
It’s a story that will make you sick and, sadly, one we’ve heard before.
Remember Stephanie Pullman?
She was 72 when she died inside her Sun City West home on a sweltering 107-degree day in September 2018. She died for lack of a $51 payment to APS.
Pullman’s death, when it eventually came to light the following year, resulted in a sizable amount of outrage and a new regulation barring power companies from disconnecting their customers from June 1 through Oct. 15.
APS says it followed power shutoff rules
Now comes Kate Korman. 12 News’ Joe Dana reports she was found dead inside her Sun City West home on May 19, 2024. Six days earlier, APS turned off her power on a day when the temperature reached 99 degrees.
“When my brother and I came out to Arizona because of my mother’s death, we arrived at our house and it was like an oven in there,” Jonathan Korman told Dana. “Was there something mechanically wrong? No. We figured out it was the power company.”
Kate Korman, it seems, had not paid her APS bill since January. She owed roughly $500 at the time of her death.
An APS spokeswoman told Dana the utility followed “established practices and rules.”
“We communicated directly to this customer 10 times through email, phone, monthly bill and notifications,” Jill Hanks told Dana.
It’s not clear whether APS went out to Korman’s home before transforming the place into a death trap. If not, shame on the utility, knowing that she was elderly and quite possibly, alone.
And shame on the rest of us, for not paying more attention.
Arizona can do better. You can play a part
Dana reports that 138 people died in heat-related incidents indoors in Maricopa County last year. Thirteen of them died in homes where the electricity was off. One of them was Kate Korman, who died due to chronic alcohol use and “exposure to elevated temperatures.”
Surely, we can do better.
We can do better by demanding a law that forbids utilities from shutting off the power on days when the temperature reaches 95 degrees. The month that Korman died, the temperature in Phoenix hit 95 or above on 17 days.
APS records show it disconnected 2,208 homes for non-payment of bills in May 2024. The utility also began voluntarily halting disconnections on May 16, three days after cutting off Korman.
Three days before her body was found.
We can do better by calling the Arizona Corporation Commission and demanding that they get answers from APS about what, specifically, they do to ensure the safety of their customers before cutting them off.
We can do better by signing up with the utilities to be informed if our elderly parents or friends fall behind on their bills. APS has a Safety Net program. So does Salt River Project. I’m betting that every utility does, or if not, they should.
And we can do better by checking on our neighbors who live alone, just to make sure they’re OK.
Who knows? You might find a friend, which is exceedingly preferable to finding a body.
Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz, on Threads at @LaurieRobertsaz and on BlueSky at @laurieroberts.bsky.social.
