Around 12 p.m. on Oct. 26, the Vistas apartment complex, located on Fredericksburg St. and adjacent to San Jacinto Hall, experienced flooding in apartments in the first building.
Ifueko Uwaifo, an exercise sports science junior who lives on the first floor of the Vistas, said at first her room was just leaking but soon the drops filled the room.
“Then I look around and notice a couple of drops,” Uwaifo said. “Then a couple of drops turned into my whole room [flooding].”
Ava Stewart, a theatre performance junior who lives on the fifth floor of the Vistas, said she had a similar experience with her room.
“There is water all over the floor and it has soaked in to my rug,” Stewart said. “I have my drawers with my clothes under my bed and I pulled those out and there’s water all underneath my bed.”
Both Uwaifo and Stewart said they were able to protect their belongings, but with water staying in the room, they are nervous about the possibility of mold growing.
Uwaifo said the water has caused her to feel unsafe due to electrical hazards.
“The smoke alarms keep going off,” Uwaifo said. “The lights in my room are not working and even though they cleaned the floor, the water is still dripping.”
According to Uwaifo, the fire department did show up to the Vistas but did not end up coming to her apartment.
Stewart said after calling the front desk for an explanation, they returned her call two hours later placing her on a list to fix the problem.
“Maybe like an hour after that [call] someone showed up,” Stewart said. “They moved all the stuff from under the bed and used the water detector and said [water] was coming through the baseboards and then said that someone would come back with a fan or that I would be called.”
Uwaifo said maintenance brought a mop and vacuum and cleared the water out of the floor. Maintenance said it would be a few days before her roof is fixed from the leakage.
Currently, the residents do not know why their apartments flooded or what the Vistas are planning to do about the issue.
“[Management] was very matter-a-fact about it,” Stewart said. “There wasn’t really an explanation or permanent solution. If there’s an issue with my baseboards, is the going to happen next time it rains?”
As of Oct. 27, residents have received no updates or information from the Vistas other than a public Instagram story.
“We are assessing all of the leaks due to the excessive amount of rain. Elevator 1 is out of order right now. Please be patient with maintenance,” the Instagram story said.
The Vistas management declined to comment. Lucciana Choueiry, a reporter on this story, is a resident of the Vistas. The University Star received maintenance requests from the residents, and will provide updates on this story as more information becomes available.
