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Power outage at Kansas City senior living facility sends 6 to hospital

Posted at 5:34 PM, Jun 18, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-20 10:05:19-04

The sounds of ambulance sirens were familiar and often at the Temple Heights Manor senior living community on Sunday, a day after storms swept through the metro.

Residents think KCP&L and management need to take their needs more seriously.

"How do we feel? We feel frustrated. Because by now we thought it would be on," Glenna Sincere, aka "Rerun," told 41 Action News.

Residents in both buildings of Temple Heights say they can't deal with the city-wide power outage much longer.

Many are sitting outside, and say they haven't had power since 10 p.m. Saturday night.

"I think maybe we ought to be a priority," Sherry Schuermann said.

Another resident, John Battaglia, just got home from the hospital.

"I'm terribly sick. To come home to this is out of my league," he said. "It's never been this long."

Residents say emergency lights in the halls and stairwells are out, and worry someone could get hurt.

41 Action News went inside the building and only saw the elevator light on.

Not only that, but many residents have serious medical conditions.

"I sleep on a CPAP. I have not been able to sleep. My apartment is hot. I have to have air to keep my machine cool," Sincere said.

Schuermann has a heart monitor and a pacemaker defibrillator.

"It's hard breathing and I have to have my breathing treatments four times a day. And I haven't been able to do that," she said.

"There's a lot of people that depend on electricity, oxygen, breathing treatments," resident James Collins said.

The security guard at Graceway Church next door told 41 Action News six people went to the hospital Sunday.

Graceway Church manages Temple Heights, and says residents can come sit in the church's air conditioning and charge their phones.

41 Action News talked to the building manager on the phone, who said they have to wait on KCP&L.

Residents say it'd be nice to see management on-site checking on folks in the meantime. They say no management has been on the property all day.

"You'd think they would offer some type of assistance since they know we've been out of power for so long," Collins said.

In a statement, Graceway said management is on site 24/7 and "management has been represented since the power outage on [Saturday] and throughout the day [Sunday]."

A backup generator in each building powers one of the two elevators.

Red Cross was unable to provide emergency services due to temperatures not being in a dangerous range, Graceway managment told 41 Action News. 

Power was restored at Temple Heights on Sunday at 5:40 p.m. according to Graceway management.