The carpets were soaked and there were dozens of holes in the
ceiling when medical student Mona Rohit returned to her Palm Court
apartment over winter break.
Someone had destroyed part of the wall in her room, and the
furniture was completely rearranged, she said. Her shoes were on
her bed.
“Everything was wet,” she said. “It looked
like a tornado hit my room.”
Rohit and her roommate Leigha Wilbur were forced to move down
the street to Olive Court in early January after their brand-new
university apartment was flooded during heavy rains.
The water entered their second-floor apartment through the roof
and damaged the unit below as well, Rohit said.
Rohit said UCLA Housing Administration staff who called her in
December told her the apartment was drenched and that heaters and
fans were in place to dry the rooms.
Rohit lives in Orange County and said she drove up on four
consecutive days to survey the damage during the break.
There were no heaters or fans, she said. The only object
installed to protect her valuables was a garbage bag placed over
the television.
“They were just lying to me on the phone,” she
said.
When she called again to complain after visiting her apartment,
Rohit said the supervisor on duty told her Housing staff thought
the heating appliances were in her apartment, but that
communication may have broken down between office personnel and
maintenance workers.
When Rohit went to move back in about a week later, nothing had
changed. Her clothes were wet, and because it was raining, she
couldn’t open the windows to get rid of the stench
inside.
“It was a complete mess,” Rohit said shaking her
head, her eyebrows raised. “You could not live in
it.”
She said while she understands that few people are available to
work over the holidays, the help she got was not enough. She and
her roommate had to live temporarily in a guest house before moving
to Olive.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they never finished the
roof on top of us,” Rohit said.
By Charlotte Hsu, Bruin senior staff