JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For more than 24 hours, dozens of people at the Bella Terraza apartment complex in Jacksonville's Regency area have been without power.
Thursday night was the second night Martin Hastings and his family had to go without power in their apartment.
"It’s humid, hot," Hastings said. "Can’t cook anything, can’t run a fan, very miserable. It’s cooler outside than it is in our apartment. It’s miserable."
The Hastings family said Wednesday night around 7 p.m., lights started flickering in their home, then at 11 p.m., the power went completely out.
Hastings said he made an emergency maintenance request that night and called the front office Thursday morning.
"The next day, I tried to call the office, no response, no answer," he told First Coast News. "Came by today to the office they couldn’t give me an answer as to what was happening, but they would call me back, no call back."
Hastings said after receiving a series of text messages from the apartment confirming the power will not come back on Thursday, he reached out to the apartment's regional office.
"I got an answer from the regional manager that they would compensate us for a hotel tonight, but most of these residents have lost everything in their refrigerator freezers. Everybody knows the cost of food nowadays," said Hastings. "They’re saying it’s not on their side, but JEA is saying it is."
First Coast News reached out to JEA and the utility responded saying the building management needs an electrician to take care of the issue first, then JEA can restore power to their building.
According to JEA, residents should direct questions to the apartment's management.
As another night fell Thursday, the Hastings family prepares for another night with no power.
"Very frustrated because I don’t think they were proactive when they found out about the problem," he said. "I think they could have acted quicker or got the right people involved to fix the situation."
First Coast News also reached out to the apartment complex during their normal office hours and they did not answer. We will follow up with them Friday.