‘We had nothing’: Metro East complex leaves senior citizen tenants without power & heat during cold weekend
By Melanie Johnson
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Granite City, Illinois (KMOV) — A holiday nightmare at a Metro East senior living facility is over.
Electricity has been fully restored at Town and Country Apartments in Granite after elderly tenants say they were left without power and heat since Christmas Eve.
“We were left on our own,” said 72-year-old resident, Mary Upton. “There was no help from management at all.”
According to the complex, the weather was to blame for the electricity going out in the building and was fixed Wednesday.
Many of the senior citizen residents had no heat or lights coming into their cold rooms during the frigid temperatures for days. Upton woke up to a rotten refrigerator on her birthday, the day after Christmas.
“I have a thermometer in my bedroom and it got down to 40 degrees,” Upton said. “I lost a lot of frozen food because the electricity was out. I would say 65% of the people lost probably $150-$200 worth of groceries and in this economy, we can’t afford that.”
In a letter to tenants Tuesday, Town and Country Apartments cite the delay in fixing the power was due to vendors not being available. The complex also advised tenants “to make arrangements to stay with family, friends, or contact Renters insurance for possibility of hotel reimbursement.”
“They’ve got to have compassion that we’re human beings and we can’t go home to a warm house the way they did,” Upton said.
News 4 traveled to the leasing office to ask management for an explanation. When confronted, Community Manager, Lori Murray said to contact their home office.
“I wish I could talk to you,” she said. “There were storms. I mean we did the best that we could as quick as we could and offered assistance in any way that we could.”
“We had nothing,” Upton said. “I don’t have a problem speaking up. What they did was wrong.”
Town and Country Apartments has hired an electrician and say they have completed all necessary repairs.
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