CINCINNATI — Residents of a high-rise condo in Hyde Park were forced out after a water main break impacted electricity.
Power went out at the Regency early Monday morning. The water main pipe burst and flooded the boiler room where the building’s electrical systems are located. When this happened, the elevators stopped working, forcing some residents to take the stairs.
Many of the building's residents are elderly. Firefighters were called in to help some of them evacuate.
"It's a 20-story building. We have some older people and they can't walk down 20 flights,” resident Ned Stern said. "People have been displaced. They’re going to hotels, relatives or friends if they have to.”
Stern said he’s been OK during the power outage. Residents say tens of thousands of gallons of water came into the building, zapping the electrical system.
"The garages were flooded and everything was flooded,” Stern said.
Power was still out Wednesday night. Elevators were restored and emergency lights were on inside the building. General manager Jim Schafer says crews are working around the clock to fix the issue.
“We have about 300 residents in the building,” Schafer said. “ Of those, about 80 have chosen to stay. The others have found other lodging at this time. We're doing everything we can to get them back home and get them back in their homes and get them back to being comfortable as soon as possible.”
Restaurant Oriental Wok was also impacted by the outage.
“Our refrigerators are not working, unfortunately,” owner Susanna Wong-Burgess said. “The biggest issue is that we home-make all of our dumplings, egg rolls, everything that we cook here is hand-cut, hand made. We had to dispose a lot of food. It breaks my heart.”
Building management said everything is expected to be restored by the end of the week. For residents, it can’t come soon enough.
"It will be great when it gets back to normal," said Stern.
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