JACKSONVILLE, FLa. — Neighbors in a Regency apartment complex have been stuck in the dark for the past three days.
Power went out in two buildings Wednesday, but the lights still haven’t come back on, and residents are at their wit’s end.
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“When you were on the ground you could actually feel the ground buzz,” said Susan Long who rents an apartment at Bella Terraza.
That was just the start of Long and her neighbor Kennedy Cates’ woes on Wednesday.
After a JEA crew attempted to fix a wiring issue outside their buildings, power was lost completely.
“At that point, it’s really a situation that needs to be through the apartment complex,” said Long.
Now, on the third day without power, Long and Cates claim the complex has done little to address the issue.
“I saw yesterday, I have one neighbor, she was in her car over here, sleeping. Her car engine is running and I felt so bad,” said Long.
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And they argued the lack of electricity isn’t the only way they’re being kept in the dark.
“No communication whatsoever between the office and us. We had to reach out to them,” said Cates.
Long and Cates told Action News Jax an electrician did come out Friday and marked the location of the wire in the backyard, but they said he told them no repairs would be happening that day.
“The contractor is working diligently to get the parts necessary to get the power back to the building permanently, but in the meantime is working on a plan for temporary power if the parts cannot be found locally. The management team at the property is communicating with the residents and teams are onsite working to get the power restored,” said Artcraft Management Inc. President Althea Parker in an emailed statement.
But a text message sent to residents just before 5 PM informed them repairs won’t be made until Tuesday.
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“They’ll close at 5 o’clock. They’ll go home to their AC and we’ll just be stuck here until Monday when they open up again,” said Cates.
The message said requests for compensation can be submitted to the office for ‘review’.
“It feels like we’re being dismissed. It almost feels like what matters more is the people who own it and the profit margin,” said Long.
A spokesperson from JEA told Action News Jax in a statement, “JEA stands ready to restore power once the necessary repairs are made by an electrician.”
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