City of New Haven
UI crew on scene at Bella Vista.
Three hundred sixty tenants spent the night without power at Bella Vista, the second mass outage in two weeks.
The power went out Saturday around 4:30 p.m. in Buildings C and D at the apartment mini-city for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, according to city emergency management chief Rick Fontana, one of a team of officials working through the night into the morning to ensure people were safe.
The outage occurred due to deterioration of an underground electric cable, Fontana said. “The infrastructure there is pretty old.” A 16-person United Illuminating crew worked overnight to replace the cable. Power returned Sunday morning shortly after 10.
To make matters worse, an emergency generator malfunctioned in Building D. So the building had no emergency lighting. And the elevator didn’t work. (It was back in operation mid-day Sunday.)
City officials decided seniors would be safer in their apartments overnight rather than being transported elsewhere, Fontana said.
The fire department went door to door to conduct welfare checks. The city distributed bottles of water.
The city responded to six emergency calls there overnight. Four were from people who had trouble breathing. They were taken to the hospital and are OK, Fontana said. One involved a safety check. And one involved a person stuck in the elevator when the power went out; that person was rescued.
Marilyn Wenzel came home around 1 a.m. to find neighbors sitting in the Victoria Room of Building D. “Someone was nice enough to give them cheese and crackers,” she said. Someone else brought her and a friend coffee Sunday morning.
Wenzel, who is legally blind, said she had suggested that the complex’s management, Meriden-based landlord Carabetta, paint yellow lines at the bottom of staircases to help seniors see when they exit in an emergency. She had been told it would happen by now, but the work hasn’t been done, she said. She said she intends to bring concerns about management to the office of U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro. “It’s not fair. You have people in wheelchairs,” she said. “I’m not finished pursuing it.”
Just two weeks ago, on Friday Oct. 15, 171 apartments in Building E lost power. That involved a breakdown in equipment controlled by Carabetta. It took days to repair, as city officials scrambled to find seniors places to stay and arrange for them to get there.