Crime & Safety
May Take Days To Fix Worcester Tower After Pipe Bursts In Arctic Event
Nearly 200 senior residents of the Elm Park Tower were evacuated Saturday due to pipes freezing, power outages and flooding.
WORCESTER, MA — It may take several more days before the nearly 200 residents of the Elm Park Tower in Worcester can return home after arctic weather damaged the Pleasant Street high rise.
According to the Worcester Housing Authority, a pipe burst in the building Saturday, leading to flooding and power outages. All residents inside the seniors-only building were evacuated and taken to four hotels in Worcester and Auburn, according to WHA.
"The WHA worked all night diligently to evacuate all residents. We have residents staying in hotels or with their loved ones. Our staff is working all day today to continue the clean-up efforts as well as providing food and other necessities to the residents at the hotels," the WHA said in a Sunday update. "We expect that it will take 2 to 3 days to fully restore the building back to normal operation."
Worcester set new all-time low temperatures records for Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 at -10 and -13, respectively. With the wind chill, temperatures reached nearly -40 overnight Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
The Elm Park evacuation is the third in less than a year where residents of a large city apartment had to be rehomed in local hotels. A roof collapse at a Mill Street building in July left more than 100 residents homeless. Hundreds more people were evacuated from the Plumley Village high rise on Thanksgiving when a fire in an electrical room knocked out power to the downtown building.
