Nightmare on Brazil Street

I rent a home on Brazil Street in Melrose. I along with 3 other neighbors had to evacuate our homes today due to a sewage back up.

We are currently staying at a hotel and had to board our dogs.

It all started at 9am the when DPW started working on the drain. They told us that the pressure from whatever they did pushed the sewage into our homes.
DPW were very apologetic about what had happened and told us to call Servpro to clean up the houses. They also told us that we would have to pay for it up front but the city would be covering the losses.

Servpro arrived around 11am gave us an estimate of about $8,000 for clean up and they would have to remove anything that the sewage waste touched, ie. Floors, walls furniture.
We were also told that we have to rent a pod in order to get any salvageable belongs out of the house so they can remove the floors and the walls. They told us this all needs to happen within 48 hours as the fumes will become toxic.

We were told the work will take about 3 weeks. So we will be stranded without a home for that time and have to pay for hotel stay, boarding and a pod rental for any of our belongings etc

The city is now claiming that they are not at fault and will not cover any damages.

Its truly devastating that a city like Melrose would treat its homeowners/ renters this way. It’s an absolute disgrace.