Burst Pipe Causes Personal Care Home Evacuation

Water cascaded from the second floor down to the first floor resulting in a soaking mess at the south wing of the building once known as Mountainside Manor. "We have the... all the electricity shut off to the building. You know the utilities are shut down. We squeegeed a lot of the water out of the second floor," said Chief Vivian. That forced the facility's nearly five dozen elderly and special needs residents to evacuate. "We brought in a couple of buses from Emanuel's Bus Line and some wheelchair vans from TransMed Company to evacuate the residents up to the middle school of Dallas," said Chief Vivian.

Among the evacuees is Margaret Montrose who hasn't lived at Back Mountain Care Center for very long. "About three months," she said. Not knowing when she can return to her relatively new home makes her feel one thing. "Nervous," said Ms. Montrose.

The American Red Cross and other Emergency Response personnel sprang to action. They answered the call to make sure residents left the personal care home with their proper medication and vital equipment. Personnel also worked to fill the emergency request to equip the temporary shelter with essentials. "They were looking for some cots and some assistance and all with the blankets and some food items and things," said American Red Cross Readiness and Response Manager William Hontz.

Some evacuees will end up with loved ones while others will be moved to temporary housing. When exactly they can return to the water-damaged facility they call home is anybody's guess. "This building is going to go through a lot of inspections before anybody is able to go back into the building," said Chief Vivian indicating it could take weeks.