News
Family made homeless by water main break by Brandon Simes
Managing EditorWednesday Nov 4, 2009 City’s response questioned
South Enders say the City failed them after a water main broke at Claremont Street and Columbus Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 28, devastating many homes and families. City officials, meanwhile, say they have done their best for residents in an extremely difficult situation.
The cause of the break-which Deputy Director of Communications for the Boston Water and Sewer Commission Tom Bagley called "very rare"-will be under investigation for some time, possibly for months. This is the third leak in the South End since July, but Bagley says Boston’s record is top-notch nonetheless.
"According to the American Water Works Association, Boston has the fewest breaks of any major city in the country. ... We attribute a lot of that to the money we’ve spent on the infrastructure, and a major portion of that was in the South End through the years-since 1995 nearly $335,000 dollars," he said.
The results remain clear, however. Columbus Avenue has been patched up with fresh concrete and the water has drained away, but the most devastating destruction hides within the gutted 36 Claremont Park basement-level home of Lynne and Lou Rizzo.
"It’s just a disaster," said Lou, whose parents flew up from Tampa, Florida, to care for the couple’s three young children at a hotel while Lynne and Lou slept on a friend’s couch.
Friend Caroline Foscato believes the Rizzos "probably got the worst of it."
"It looks like something that you see from another place," she said Foscato.
Five feet of water broke through a ground-level window at one end of the Rizzos’ home, thrashing almost everything in its path. A wine bottle careened from the dining room on one side of the Rizzos’ home to a bedroom on the opposite end, smashing a hole in the wall. Only fortunate timing prevented serious injury. Lynne had left just before the break to pick up her children.
"The force of the water broke the window, and that’s how bad it was. If I was sitting, I would have been sitting right [in front of the window]. Who knows what would have happened," she said.
The Rizzos believe the City has let them down.
"There’s been no progress," said Lou. "Boston Water and Sewer didn’t come out to look at our damage until [Sunday], that was five days. ... There’s been no claim of responsibility."
Lou said he contacted At-Large City Councilor John Connolly’s office, as well as at-large councilor-elect Felix Arroyo, who both told him he had taken the proper steps. But, he added, "There’ve been no city representatives here other than the housing person and the electrical inspector, who showed up very, very late, and only after me flagging them down to say, ’Hey, come help, please.’"
In cases of emergency Boston’s Rental Housing Resource Center offers counseling services, and the City also has financial resources available to help with the costs of finding a temporary rental apartment. Boston Water says it offered six rooms at the Hampton Inn on Massachusetts Avenue to affected residents starting last Friday, but that none accepted. The message did not find its way to some residents, however.
Lou said they didn’t receive an offer to stay at a hotel until Monday, and at that point they had already made other arrangements.
"We called the mayor’s hotline [the day of the break], we registered the complaint, we thought that would start a whole thing of wheels turning and start the machine in motion and it just hasn’t," said Lou, who added that they heard back after calling again on Monday.
The Rizzos say friends like Foscato have helped tremendously where they believe the City has been remiss. Just this week the Rizzos took keys for a temporary apartment at the corner of West Newton Street, which GTI Properties offered them at reduced rate with flexible lease terms.
"South Enders and our neighbors and our friends have been a wonderful support network-really, really wonderful," said Lou. "The City told us to call the Red Cross."
Lou said the neighbors affected by the break will stay in touch about future plans for any legal action.
"We’re helping each other out where we can, but we will remain unified to pursue whatever action we need to receive the fair and appropriate restitution for this problem. And if it means we have to band together in some sort of class-action effort, then there’s strength in numbers and we’re certainly together," he said.
Bagley said he could not comment on the legal process, but that residents are welcome to file claims for damage.
The Rizzos believe South Enders can help most at this point by contacting the City and raising awareness of the situation in the area.
"[City officials would] get a whole different story if they came and saw this," said Lynne.
Karen Monti, who lives across the street from the Rizzos, was on her way home from picking up her seven-year-old daughter when she saw 18 inches of mud on her doorstep.
"I was picking up my daughter so I just came and I could see the tidal wave coming down the street, and it was pretty scary," she said.
Monti, who remained in her home after the damage, also feels City officials could do a better job of reaching out.
"We just don’t know what to do. ... It would be helpful to have representatives with some information come through the street and help us understand how collectively we can work with the City and the municipality," she said.
Monti, whose daughter has had nightmares about flooding waters since the incident, said she would consider joining in on a class-action effort, and added that water continues to seep into structures.
"I’m not sure that the worst has passed us yet," she said.
The water also flooded cars, and some of their owners had yet to find out earlier this week. The air quality is an issue for the Rizzos, and the smell has yet to dissipate.
"It’s been a nightmare, it’s really been a nightmare for us," said Lou, holding back emotions. "We’re safe, we’re fortunate to be safe, we’re fortunate for the network of friends and neighbors that we have that have come to our assistance, and we do not take that for granted."
Bagley said that in a situation such as this it’s difficult to label an "adequate response."
"What is adequate when someone has been devastated with their things? What is an adequate response? We were there, people can file a claim with us, adjusters were in the area on Friday, they were there Saturday, but what do you say when people have been devastated? There really isn’t an adequate response," he said.
The Rizzos have hired an insurance adjuster to help them with their claims, but Lou believes the process will be "horribly difficult because the insurance company will call it a flood, and we don’t have flood insurance, nor does anyone have flood insurance here. This is a three- or four-hundred-year flood zone, so you don’t carry flood insurance. But this isn’t an act of God. This is a mechanical water main break. This is not a tornado that sent a typhoon that sent a wall of water over the city of Boston, this was preventable."
"We don’t want to have to go into a hole because of this," added Lynne.
Bagley wouldn’t speculate as to the reason for the break, but said the City does "a lot to prevent main breaks."
The Rizzos salvaged enough clothing to get them by, but lost items of immeasurable value.
"It affects us the most because we have three kids," said Lynne. "It’s just so upsetting for me. We picked through their artwork to see if we could keep anything, and really we couldn’t because it was all under water."
For Lou, who has yet to return to work since the flooding, their story extends to the entire area.
"It’s not just about us, there are other families on the street, it’s about this neighborhood and what happened here," he said. "It’s not Lynne and Lou boo hoo."
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