More Follow-up: Water, Water Everywhere

Update: The company that manages Charter House told residents displaced by last Thursday's flood that it will no longer pay to put them up in local hotels, according to NBC 4 News. Instead, the building's management offered to waive December's rent and threw in a one-time shot at $1,200 to find new digs.

Apartments at the Charter House are still unhabitable, says NBC 4 News. Building inspectors say it may take a few weeks to repair the busted 4-inch water pipe that caused 5 feet of water to fill the basement. (Dec. 7, 2006)

Residents of a downtown Silver Spring apartment building are being evacuated because of flooding in the building's basement, NBC 4 News reports.

The Charter House, an independent-living facility for seniors, has up to six feet of water in its basement. How the water got into the Fenwick Lane building is unknown.

Because the basement also contains the building's electrical systems, MoCo's fire and rescue services are asking Charter House's 230 residents to pack at least a day's worth of clothes and meds and to bug out.

"Of course, it's distressing," one resident told NBC 4 News. "I have a cat I left behind."

Officials on the scene are putting residents on Ride-On buses, which will take them to the Gwendolyn Coffield Recreation Center in Lyttonsville.

Roads around Fenwick Lane have been closed so that utility workers can address the problem. So far, NBC 4 News reports no traffic backups on Georgia Avenue as a result of the evacuation.

Photo courtesy of Harkins Builders.

"Officials Evacuate Silver Spring Apartment Building" (NBC 4 News)
"Senior Citizens Displaced After Flood" (Washington Post)