Mobile Home Park Residents Want Water Restored
Sunday, May 26, 2013 @ 1:41 PM
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(Tenants view hole next to their home while park manager pumps water. Submitted photos)
Prince George, B.C. – Some residents of the Caledonia Mobile Home Park on North Nechako Road are now into their third day without running water, and are having no luck getting the problem rectified.
Tenant Debra Burns says the problem started Friday afternoon when a water line in a green space at the end of one of the rows of homes broke. She says a pool of water started forming on the grass, at which time the water was shut off with a promise service would be restored that night. Ms. Burns says a man attempted to repair the problem but was unsuccessful and the water was not turned back on. With water continuing to leak into the ground a hole started opening on the lawn. And residents are concerned because there are plenty of kids in the park and there is no barricade around the hole.
She says another person returned sometime after 2pm Saturday and dug until evening, but again the effort failed. Burns says “It’s just some dude who probably doesn’t know what he’s doing. Yesterday he threw three different pumps in that hole but didn’t put them on a board or dry ground or anything and burnt out the three pumps, and then went home. That was the extent of what happened yesterday. You know they didn’t call in somebody who can actually fix the problem.”
The hole, she says, is now about 6 feet deep with water in it. The park is owned by Mirae Investments. A spokesman for the company, Peter Wang in Vancouver, says about 30 tenants are affected by the problem. “There is a leak and we have shut off the water and haven’t fixed it yet. But everybody is very angry, so that’s where it comes from. We have a man who started working yesterday but the soil collapsed. So today we have somebody coming right away.” Wang says he thinks the problem should be repaired and water restored by tonight. He also says the hole will be filled in.
Debra Burns isn’t holding her breath. “Peter can say whatever he wants. He’s in Vancouver, he hasn’t seen it and that’s what I’ve been hearing since Friday. I actually had it in writing that it would be fixed Friday at 7 (pm), and then the message that night was changed to sorry we ran out of time and it got dark, we didn’t get it done, it will be done tomorrow.” She says that didn’t happen, and today the residents are still waiting for someone to fix the problem.
Burns says adding to the situation is that some of her neighbors are housebound, “so a voice mail to obtain our drinking water from a tap at the side of the North Nechako Foods does not help them. Many have small children who cannot bathe. It’s a mess here.”
Comments
This might sound strange, but they should have hired City crews to do it. The owner might not like the costs, but these people are experts at this and have the right equipment to find the source of the problem and fix it properly and safely.
Not only should the residents of the park barricade that hole themselves in whatever way they can, but that woman should not be in that hole. A broken water pipe isn’t worth losing your life for.
I live in the Caledonia Trailer park and am one of the tenants that is effected by water being off. The woman in the hole is the park manager. This is crap everyone has lives to live that require water and no one can do that, we are having to go get jugs of water! I have 2 disabled kids that vomit lots and i have to bathe them and wash their laundry everyday! This is unsanitary and wrong, we pay for water and i shouldn’t have to sponge bathe my kids with a pot of boiled water and drive across town to do laundry.
I live in the Caledonia Trailer park and am one of the tenants that is effected by water being off. The woman in the hole is the park manager. This is crap everyone has lives to live that require water and no one can do that, we are having to go get jugs of water! I have 2 disabled kids that vomit lots and i have to bathe them and wash their laundry everyday! This is unsanitary and wrong, we pay for water and i shouldn’t have to sponge bathe my kids with a pot of boiled water and drive across town to do laundry.
Contact the Landlord Tenancy Branch. I *believe* water is considered a necessity, and if it isn’t provided, must pay for accommodations at a hotel if service is out for an extended time period.
I don’t know what the procedure is though,especially if you don’t have the funds to pay up front and request reimbursement.
You might want to try the Red Cross – they may be able to provide assistance through emergency housing funds or by hauling water to you.
The city crews would not be available as the leak is on private property.
Could have been worse.They could have been living in Awappiscrap.
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