A sixth floor tenant in the nine-floor apartment building at 250 Ste. Anne Road told Sudbury.com she was seated in her chair on Sunday afternoon when she heard a loud bang and the phone jack blew off the wall and flew across the room.
It’s scared the daylights out of her.
But that was just the start of a 36-hour ordeal for the hundreds of residents, mainly seniors, occupying two downtown apartment buildings: the previously mentioned building on Ste. Anne Road and another at 111 Notre Dame Ave.
Greater Sudbury Utilities spokesperson Wendy Watson said the public utility was performing maintenance work in the building at the time. A planned outage from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day was to allow workers to install new equipment, including a new transformer.
That transformer turned out to be a problem and the six-hour outage turned into a 36-hour one.
When we energized the new transformer late Sunday afternoon, it malfunctioned causing a power surge and blew power to both buildings,” Watson told Sudbury.com “We replaced the faulty transformer and power was restored to both buildings Monday afternoon.”
But, while power was restored, electricians were going door-to-door to change fuses and make sure power was flowing to all the units. The woman we spoke with on Tuesday was still waiting on a visit.
While the spoiled food and lack of hot water and lights certainly wasn’t good, going without a working elevator for more than a day in a building housing many senior citizens was worse.
Watson said the GSU has been working with the building managers, which the tenant told Sudbury.com was Luxor Management Inc., “to ensure restoration of normal services.” A message left for Luxor by Sudbury.com has not yet been returned.
Watson also said insurance adjusters were on site on Oct. 2, and were to be back today to meet with residents individually. She said the GSU’s intention is to “make whole” both residents and property.
