HOUSTON – It’s almost like an evil game of monkey in the middle. The residents of the Durham Heights Apartments in Houston Heights being the monkey caught in the middle of CenterPoint Energy on one side, and their apartment managers on the other side.
For more than a week, they’ve been without power and running water after a severe weather outbreak in the Houston area.
The apartment complex has a water system that relies on an electric pump to move water to each of the apartments on the corner of Durham Drive and West 26th Street.
On Thursday, KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding uncovered the issue at the apartment complex, recording temperatures in residents’ units reaching the mid-80s.
- More coverage from yesterday: Day 7 without power is getting dangerous and unhealthy for some
Relief was in sight when CenterPoint Energy came to replace a big green transformer outside of the apartment building.
However, when they turned the transformer on, they found yet another problem.
“Last night, CenterPoint Energy’s team replaced the transformer that serves the Durham Heights Apartments,” a CenterPoint Energy spokesperson said. “Upon attempting to re-energize the complex, the team determined that the customer has a cable fault within their conductors. Unfortunately, until the customer fixes their equipment, this complex cannot be energized.”
Residents woke up on Friday to yet another day of blistering warm temperatures in their rented homes with a forecast that only has the mercury moving upwards into dangerous territory.
The heat is on!🥵It's the "unofficial" start to summer this Memorial Day weekend & it will certainly feel like it. Heat indices in the triple digits are expected. Even though there are no heat advisories in effect yet, make sure to practice heat safety! Stay hydrated & cool! pic.twitter.com/EnVqSX1SOP
— NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) May 24, 2024
“It’s hot as heck in my apartment,” Kathryn Guthrie said.
“I stayed here up until last night. Last night was kind of my breaking point,” Tannis Rhodes added.
They’re looking for some kind of answer, some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
According to residents, they’ve been getting emails from the apartment manager, but they’ve been full of false promises and no real updates.
When KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding went to get answers, he was met with the classic response of: “No comment.”
Gage: “Hi. How are you?”
Apartment Manager: “Good.”
Gage: “My name is Gage. I’m with KPRC 2 News.”
Apartment Manager: “Yes. I saw you yesterday.”
Gage: “Yeah. So, what’s going on?”
Apartment Manager: “I will have to just, you know, no comment right now. I was not able to or at liberty to discuss anything, but everything’s kind of like being worked on. But we’re not at liberty. No comment right now.”
Gage: “Okay, so CenterPoint has you energized. So, the is internal, right?”
Apartment Manager: “Like I said, no comment right now. And if you can just step over here for me.”
The apartment manager isn’t lying; work is being done. But there’s no inkling as to where the problem is or when the solution will be delivered with power being resorted to the residents who are expected to pay rent on the first of the month.
“For her to just, like, not say anything and not give us like an update or real actual answers is very frustrating for me at least,” Guthrie said.
While the apartment complex’s electrical contractors were working, we asked for our own third-party professional electrician to take a look at the situation and give their best judgement without actually touching the problem itself.
“I don’t know why they would have a fault in one of the wires from just this [transformer] going out,” John Longorio from Panther Electric said.
Finding the answer and the problem amid the mess of wires might be a lot harder than it sounds.
Gage: “So, they have to go through each individual wire until they find. "
John: “Yeah, that’s what I would be doing for.”
Gage: “A long day ahead of them.”
John: “If one of them or if they find that if they find the short, then it is probably going to be a matter of them pulling the wire out and pulling it back in.”
Until the issue is found, a solution is drawn up and the problem fixed—all the residents here can do is wait.
“I’m going out of town for Memorial Day weekend and really if it’s not on by the time I get back from that. Yeah, I’m getting out of here,” Matt Murray said.
KPRC2 asked IR Living, the owner of the apartment complex, for more information. Our messages were not returned.