MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Housing Authority said that despite their efforts to prepare for extreme weather conditions, pipes at the Paul Borda Towers failed and flooded apartments.
WREG spoke with people who live there, people who said water has been running in the building for days.
Fire trucks and firefighters were at the Borda Towers apartments in the Edge District Monday Morning. People who live there saying the entire building was flooded.
“My apartment is soaked, the hallways is soaked,” resident Tahsha Eastman said.
They say after temperatures dropped to near zero last week and then water stopped flowing from their faucets and started flowing from their ceilings and walls.
“They got water leaks everywhere, stairway ceiling outside of the building everywhere. water just coming through the walls everywhere,” an neighbor who wanted to remain anonymous said.
In a statement The Memphis Housing Authority which manages the building said — “Because of extreme weather conditions, pipes in MHA’s Borda Tower burst this morning and the MHA team responded to resident calls as quickly as possible to shut off the water…”
Eastman said the water stopped working on Christmas Eve.
“Christmas Eve around seven we have not had any water at all, other than what is flooding the building right now,” Eastman said.
MHA also said they had responded to every resident incident report throughout the weekend.
People who live there say the busted pipes, have caused a trickle-down effect, and the trickle of water our crew saw coming down the side of the building.
“They couldn’t even use the elevator cause the elevator is flooded with water people if something break out in the building we wouldn’t have a way to get out of there because water is everywhere and you have people in here in wheelchairs and disabled and all types of situations,” an anonymous neighbor told us.
MHA said Monday morning they were working to secure the needed equipment to remove water from the building. Residents said that while the floodwaters are being removed, they still need clean water for other household needs.
“They can bring some water here for us, paper towels food. we can’t cook. can’t do anything can’t flush the toilet and it is disgusting in here. it is disgusting how they treat us,” Eastman said.
In their statement, MHA said they would be taking drinking water to residents. MHA also said Any residents whose units are uninhabitable because of this will be re housed.