Around a dozen residents at the Mosaic Dallas apartment building in downtown Dallas reached out to NBC 5 – reporting days without air conditioning as temperatures outside continued to soar into the mid and upper 90s on Monday.
A city council liaison for District 14 – where the apartment building is located – said management told the city more than 600 residents have been impacted.
Resident Nancy Sensat shared photos she snapped of temperature readings on her thermostat inside her apartment. Sunday, she said her thermostat read 89 degrees inside. Monday, it read 91.
“You can't even breathe, it’s so hot,” said Sensat. “Even with fans. There's no way to cool it off.”
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Jessica Hoxworth shared a photo of the thermostat inside her apartment reading 96 degrees on Sunday.
“We can really only stand it there for about five minutes before it's just suffocating,” said Hoxworth who is now staying in a hotel.
Dallas Water Utilities said it started work on a valve on the city-side of the water service line to the apartment building on Friday. Crews restored water service to the Mosaic Dallas by Saturday afternoon, but Dallas said the ongoing issue with air conditioning appears to lie with the building’s chiller system – which uses water to operate.
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Code compliance and Dallas Water Utilities said they’re working with the building to troubleshoot why chillers aren’t working.
Dallas code compliance told NBC 5 by email it hoped repairs could be made by Monday night or Tuesday morning.
Olympus Property, which manages the Mosaic Dallas, shared a timeline with NBC 5 Responds late Monday night.
It said water was now moving to the cooling tower where it would take 24 hours to fill. Olympus said it expects the chilling system in the building to begin cooling within 48 hours and that the property would provide another update before 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
Olympus Property pointed to an Aug. 10 water main break that affected power and HVAC service in the building for six days. Olympus said the city notified Mosaic of a new leak causing water pressures in the building last Wednesday.
Resident Zach Mahoney said he and his wife left town on Friday. They’re due back home late Monday night.
“Before we left, my apartment was at 85 degrees. We didn't have water. It looked like the city made the water supply fix and hoping that the AC's fixed,” said resident Zach Mahoney.
Resident Alex Fath said he is also staying in a hotel unsure of when he will be able to return home.
“I don't have friends or family in Dallas. It's literally just been figuring it out," said Fath.
“Some people are still in their apartments in 96 degrees with pets and no place to go,” said Sensat.
She and other residents are planning an informal meeting Monday night.
“The goal is to come up with a plan of action to get the residents together. I think our only outlet right now has been just venting through Facebook. I want the residents to come together as a group so we can come up with some type of resolution and to let people know that they're not in this alone,” said Sensat.
