Dozens of Thunder Mountain Mobile Park residents weren’t able to use their showers or do laundry over the holidays and during recent snowstorms.
Wright Services, the company that owns the park, said it won’t be able to repair the main water line until temperatures warm. And warm weather isn’t in the forecast any time soon.
Tammy Jablonski said it’s making it hard to live her life.
“I had, like, just a trickle come out,” she said. “Not enough to flush the toilet, not enough to, obviously, to take a shower or wash dishes or do anything else. Laundry, nothing.”
Jablonski has lived at the mobile park for more than 10 years. In 2020, the park lost water pressure during a cold spell, but it was resolved after a few days. This time, she said her water has been nothing but a trickle since Dec. 20.
Wright Services General Manager David Crocker said some of the pipes that connect the main city water line to individual mobile homes are frozen.
“Once it happens up at the top, where the connection is that the residents are responsible for, it can freeze them down into the main line and cause issues with people, other people in the park, other than just that one unit,” he said. “So we’ve been working diligently to try to identify where those issues are and take care of them.”
But, Crocker said, they can’t reach the main line with construction equipment because the ground is frozen. Instead, they are trying to trace the blockage by investigating each report.
According to survey results Crocker shared, out of 89 residences, 60 initially had issues with low water pressure, and as of Monday, people in 11 residences reported the pressure had improved.
When the pressure issues started, the company provided each resident with cases of water, two day passes to Juneau’s pools for showers, and portable toilets in the park.
But Jablonski said that the cases of water are long gone, the local pools have been closed sporadically, and the porta-potties immediately froze and are unusable.
She said she called Wright Services before the New Year to ask if there would be a rent reduction. Instead, she was charged the full amount, plus a rent increase that the company informed residents of before the water issues started.
“I never got a phone call back, and I have an auto payment for the park on my bank account, and it came out big as you please,” Jablonski said. “And it went up.”
She said she hasn’t been hearing much from the company as this problem persists. When asked about rent reduction, Crocker told KTOO the company is focused on repairing the issue and declined to answer the question.
The Alaska Landlords and Tenants Act says tenants can seek damages via lawsuits if services that should be provided in their leases aren’t.
Jablonski said she and other residents just want running water again.
“We are asking for help. We’re not trying to be demanding. We’re not being ugly,” she said. “We’re asking for basic services.”
In the meantime, the lack of water has taken a toll, Jablonski said. Especially on top of the historic amounts of snow.
“I love a good snowstorm. But this one has handed my tail to me. The amount of money I’ve had to spend to get dug out, to help dig out myself, to get my roof cleaned off, to not be able to come in and take a hot shower and cook a good hot meal with hot water,” she said. “It’s like are you kidding me?”
With another snowstorm descending, she worries that a fix won’t come any time soon.
