It’s been four days since a 32-unit apartment building in Kelowna, B.C., flooded, and since then, residents have been without power.
On Thursday, a city water main broke near the intersection of Highway 97 and Pandosy Street, sending water into the lobby and parkade of Mill Creek Landing on Water Street.
“I woke up to find out the pipe burst down the block and pooled water into our building, we got pretty flooded. It was to the point where the lobby had couches that were actually floating around the lobby,” said Mill Creek Landing resident Spencer Alves.
“There was a lot of water that got into the parkade as well, a lot of cars have been damaged. There’s thankfully no first-floor units in our building so none of the units got damaged.”
However, the building’s electrical system sustained significant damage and the power to the building was turned off.
And according to a letter posted in the lobby of the apartment building, the power could be off until next week, or longer because a crucial piece of equipment was damaged.
“There are no emergency lights, the fire alarm system is actually not on right now. Going through the stairwells and the hallways it is pitch black. The elevators are out too so it’s just stairs,” said Alves.
“Right now there’s a bunch of debris on the stairs … that hasn’t been cleaned up. It’s frankly dangerous and you need to have some kind of light source. Most people are just using the lights on their phones.”
Alves says the building occupancy hasn’t been revoked, and residents are able to stay at their own risk but are encouraged to find temporary housing.
“Because we can still occupy the building we can’t get emergency social service support, or ESS,” said Alves.
“Because there was no damage to the unit themselves, renters’ insurance doesn’t do anything, landlords insurance doesn’t do anything, and strata insurance is just for the building it’s self so we are just high and dry.”
In the meantime, Alves went on to say that he can’t afford to eat out every day or find a new place to live until the power is restored.
“The one thing we do still have is running water at the very least but there’s no hot water. It means we can’t cook any food, we can’t clean our clothes, we can’t do the laundry,” continued Alves. “We can’t keep any of our food. I just had to go through my freezer and throw out everything because it’s all gone bad because there’s no refrigeration. We’re just sitting in the dark and the cold with flashlights and candles.”
Alves is calling on the city for help.
“They fixed the road, they fixed the pipe, they cleared the water, they dusted their hands and they walked away. But we’re still dealing with the repercussions of what happened,” said Alves.
“If you asked me, I think this is something that that the city should be taking care of. It was their pipe on their property that flooded our building.”
The broken water main was repaired shortly after the flood, however restoration work of the apartment building is still ongoing.