Downtown apartments flood after pipes burst, residents displaced

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Residents at a downtown Memphis apartment community reached out to FOX13 after burst pipes began flooding the building in the freezing temperatures.

Extreme cold can cause pipes to freeze and burst.

Residents at Paul Borda Towers said they woke up Monday morning to their homes flooding.

One woman said the flooding began Friday and said residents had had no water for three days.

“You can’t have no drinking water,” she said. “You can’t take a shower, can’t flush the toilet. The elevators have been flooded.”

The woman said some handicapped residents were even trapped in their apartments.

She described the situation as “terrible.”

“We can’t keep constantly living like this,” she said. “There’s mold and mildew in the building.”

FOX13′s cameras were not allowed inside the complex, but our crew could see water dripping down outside.

Officials with Memphis Housing Authority issued a statement, saying they shut off the water as quickly as possible.

They said residents whose home are uninhabitable will be rehoused.

Their full statement is below:

Throughout the last week, our team prepared the building for extreme weather conditions through tenant education, preventive maintenance in unoccupied units, and wrapping pipes that were in areas that were more likely to freeze, among other measures.

Because of extreme weather conditions, pipes in MHA’s Borda Tower burst this morning and the MHA team responded to resident calls as quickly as possible to shut off the water – and has responded to every resident incident report throughout the weekend.

We are currently working to secure the needed equipment to remove water from the building, but know it is in high demand as many Memphians work through similar situations. We are also working on the process of bringing drinking water to the tower.

Any residents whose units are uninhabitable because of this will be rehoused through MHA.

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