Evacuation of downtown Calgary apartment has tenants displaced while building is repaired
CBC
Tenants of an apartment building in downtown Calgary that was evacuated after flooding and power outages last week are still displaced — and some say the management company will soon stop paying for their hotels.
A string of problems began in the Westview Heights apartment building, which houses 297 units across 41 floors in the 800 block of 8th Avenue S.W., when a pipe burst on Dec. 22 and disabled the elevators, tenants told CBC News.
In the days that followed, the building suffered flooding and outages that included electricity and heat during a bone-chilling Alberta cold snap.
More flooding on Boxing Day prompted the building's evacuation.
Fortieth-floor resident Jules Glasel told CBC News on Tuesday there was only time to rescue her three cats from the building because the water made it too dangerous.
"I was just beyond scared and crying so much on the way to grab my cat, not knowing how they were like," she said.
"Just so scary not knowing what's going on, and it's just so beyond stressful feeling like, 'Hey, what's going to happen? Am I going to have a home to go back to?'"
Throughout the ordeal, communication with Mayflower Ventures, the building's management company, has been sparse, said Glasel.
But she has been notified her hotel stay will only be covered until Tuesday morning.
"I then have to pay either, like, for myself out-of-pocket, or go find somewhere to go," Glasel said.
"There are definitely a lot of people who cannot afford to be paying the $75 a night, for however long it is. So there's going to be people who are just, like, out, with nowhere to go."
She says after what she experienced, she plans to move out as soon as she can.
Another resident, Jamey Bracey says she and her husband live on the 38th floor with an infant son and their dog.
When the building started flooding, she says she travelled down flights of flooding stairs with her son to go stay with family.
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