OTTAWA -- Seniors living in Lincoln Heights are feeling the aftermath of a weekend power outage.
“I’m so sore. I can’t move, plus I have problems, I have fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis,” said Krystyna Gerla.
The 68-year-old woman lives on the 18th floor of an apartment building on Richmond Road.
A fire at Hydro Ottawa substation left more than 11,000 people in the dark Saturday at around 2:30 a.m.
Three seniors were among those feeling stranded and frustrated because their building had no back-up generator, which meant the elevators were out of service for more than 24-hours.
Seventy-seven year-old Salwa El Hakim has chronic pain and had been worried if there was an emergency over the weekend, no one would be able to get her.
“So paramedics were out of the question, water out of the question, elevators out of the question, so what are we supposed to do?”
Linda Bourgon, 62, said she is also sore, after walking up and down the stairs several times to walk her dog.
“There are a lot of seniors out here and a lot that are incapable, a lot are in pain and there are some that had to stay in their apartment and didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
Theresa Kavanagh, the City councilor for the area, visited the pair of buildings on Saturday and raised the issue of security at City Hall on Monday.
“I think there’s an opportunity to review our policies on this,” said Kavanagh.
“One of the biggest problems we had was people stuck in apartment buildings with no elevator and no emergency lighting, so this is something we can look at as a city.”
The fire was more complicated because it was underground – firefighters and a hazmat crew had to be called in.
Power was eventually restored in the Carling, Richmond, Pinecrest and Oakley areas early Sunday morning.
The women said their main concern is the possibility of a power outage knocking out elevators again.
Homestead Land Holdings Limited is the owner and manager of the building. The building manager for the Richmond Road location told CTV News it is in the process of putting in a generator.
However, the process was started two years ago after a tornado touched down in Ottawa.
The manager could not provide a timeline of when it would be finished.
“We’re getting old. Anything can happen,” Gerla said.
