About 140 residents were forced out of a four-storey, 70-unit building on Windermere Road on Friday after the parking garage flooded due to a water main break.
Security arrived at Building 3 of Elements of Windermere Friday afternoon to escort residents out of the building.
Resident Jim Letendre said his wife woke up at around 3 a.m. Friday and realized the water was turned off.
Letendre said he tried to go down to the parkade to find the phone number for building maintenance.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” he said. “I went down there to get the number.
“That’s when the elevator dropped (from the main floor to the garage) and water rushed in. I’m frantically pushing buttons.
“I was frightened. I was scared to death.”
Letendre said he managed to get out of the elevator and make his way to the stairs, before going around to the parking garage.
“The water was about two feet and still rushing.”
He said he also put signs on the elevator alerting people not to use it.
By Friday afternoon, everyone living in the building was told to leave as the power had to be turned off for repairs.
Tarek Merhej, a spokesperson with Avison Young, the property management company for the building, said a water main broke in the parkade and that the cause of the break is being investigated.
Merhej said about 140 residents are impacted and that they should be allowed back in the building this week.
“Our team will be sending an update to the residents on Monday and I have asked them to aim for daily updates to the residents for the upcoming week.”
Merhej said said the elevator and parkade may take longer to repair.
The Canadian Red Cross is helping 16 of the evacuees through its Personal Disaster Assistance program with emergency accommodations and food for three days.
It’s also helping with transportation assistance as needed.
“Without them, we’d be out on the street,” Letendre said.
EPCOR says while the leak was on private property, it was called in to shut off the main water line to the building, so that the property management team could do repairs.
EPCOR said water service has since been turned back on to the external valve for the building.
Resident Ryley Marchant said he believes his new vehicle is a write-off. He bought it last week and is now waiting for an update from his insurance company.
“My car is right by the entrance. So I saw my car right away and I just had a pit in my stomach.
“It’s a brand new car. I just got it a week ago. It didn’t have 1,300 kilometres on it.
“It’s all very stressful,” Marchant said.
According to a notice to residents from Avison Young, the cost of accommodation and vehicle damage is not the responsibility of the condo corporation.
Some of the residents have set up a GoFundMe to help with the cost of finding temporary housing.
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