COLUMBUS, Ohio — Inside an apartment at Wedgewood Village Apartments in Columbus sits a pile of presents wrapped and ready, but now ruined. They are soaked and covered in debris.
“It's very discouraging,” said the resident, who wanted to remain anonymous.
She explained what happened as a nightmare that started Christmas Eve.
“I noticed it was water running in the bathroom and so we called and I told my daughter and she called maintenance,” she said. “And they said they would have somebody out as soon as they could. That they'd have someone out. And nobody came.”
Then Christmas morning, while her daughter and granddaughter were asleep in the living room they heard a loud bang, followed by water flooding from the ceiling above.
“The ceiling fell in,” she said. “I don't want to bring my great-grandchildren in here or my grandchildren in here.”
She said she has been calling the office, but so far nothing's been done to help. We went to the Wedgewood Village Apartments office and had no luck either. For now, they are able to stay with friends and family.
“Very grateful for that,” she said.
And she is speaking out in hopes this grabs the attention of someone who can take action.
“I would ask they would come and they would do what they're supposed to do and take care of different things in Wedgewood and it wouldn't get this bad.”
We reached out to the city's code enforcement about these apartments but have not heard back.
Meanwhile we've also been following weather-related issues at the Latitude Five25 Apartments, where people were forced out on Christmas due to burst pipes.
We heard from city attorney Zach Klein about this Tuesday who said in a release that "catastrophic system failures" forced that evacuation and now the city will hold the owners in contempt of court order which should lead to the transfer of the property to a receivership group to take it over, conduct repairs, and prepare the property to be sold.
More than 30 people have been staying at an emergency shelter run by the Red Cross -- but it's closing Wednesday at 9 a.m.
We reached out to the city about what's next and they said they are now working with Franklin County and other service providers to secure interim housing for displaced residents.
Paxe Latitude, the owners of the property, have not returned our calls.