Family shelter without heat, hot water for days
By: Rebecca Turco
Email: rturco@abc6.com
Twitter: @RTurcoABC6
Facebook: RebeccaTurcoABC6
WARWICK, R.I. – A family shelter in Warwick was without heat and hot water for days, following a gas leak Friday.
Crossroads’ Chief Operating Officer Michelle Wilcox tells ABC6 News the leak came from a two-inch gas line coming into the building. Workers could not start fixing it until Monday because the repair part wasn’t readily available.
The building is part homeless shelter, part permanent supportive housing.
The homeless families were transferred to other shelters or put up in hotels. The permanent residents fall under different guidelines so they were on their own.
Mandi Griffin lives in an apartment with her four children and husband. Her 12 year-old is physically disabled. They live on the third floor. She was evacuated along with everyone else in the building Friday afternoon.
"Getting her down those stairs – that was crazy with the two little ones,” Griffin said. “It was just too much."
Overnight Friday, temperatures in Warwick dipped as low as 35 degrees and it felt like the 26 degrees with wind chill.
"We stayed here that Friday night and then we all left Saturday because it was just too cold,” she said. “We couldn’t stay here. It was freezing.”
Griffin put her family up in a hotel for two nights. She says she spent around $200.
Wilcox says Crossroads is sorry for any inconvenience and that residents who paid for hotel stays will be reimbursed.
© WLNE-TV 2017
