Tenants of one section of adjacent beach houses known as “The Blue Balls” returned to find their kitchen ceiling reduced to a pile of soggy drywall on the floor, while the rest of the house was essentially unlivable.
Near record low temperatures have been a problem for numerous beach residents, causing frozen pipes and high heating bills.
“A lot of beach residents had frozen pipes over the cold winter break, but our pipes burst, leaking water into the ceiling and then the floor,” said Brendan Reuter ’05. “The water flowed everywhere. It was a huge mess.”
Besides large damage to the house, personal belongings were not majorly affected by the floods.
“Most of the valuable stuff like stereos and TVs had been raised off the ground and weren’t damaged,” Reuter said.
The residents of the house were able to joke about their good fortune. No one was in the house at the time and most of their personal belongings were left relatively undammaged.
“Fortunately, my Tom Brady bobble-head was salvaged,” Mike Columbus ’05 said.
Because of the unlivable conditions caused by the damage, the students were left homeless. However fortune has smiled on them once again as they have a roof over their heads.
“It was such a hassle,” said Ryan O’Heir ’05. “Our friends were generous enough to take us into their townhouses and beach houses.”
O’Heir, Columbus, Reuter and Martin O’Connor ’05 said they were shocked to find their beach house, located at 949 Fairfield Beach Road, was essentially ruined by frozen water pipes that burst and caused sufficient damage to destroy the roof.
The landlord, Paul Ganim, Esq., an attorney, provided his tenants with an apartment in Bridgeport in the interum.
Ganim did not returned phonecalls from The Mirror as of Tuesday, the date of the paper’s publication.
Students who live on the beach may wish to consider renter’s insurance. Alumni living on the beach had a house fire in September. In the event of property loss, normal insurance and landlords may not cover damages.
“It wasn’t really anyone’s fault,” said Reuter. “We don’t have to pay for it. It will probably be covered by our landlord’s insurance. Meanwhile, he [Ganim] has been very accommodating in getting us alternate housing.”
Socially speaking, the four won’t be affected greatly, according to the tenants.
“We’re going to miss the parties at Blue Balls, but our friends are going to let us stay at their houses on weekends, so we can still have a good time,” said Reuter.
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