Joe Bodick has never loved the smell of hot dogs more than he did Wednesday night.
Bodick, president of Freeport Towers tenant association, was one of the more than 80 high-rise residents who went without power for 37 hours after Tuesday’s violent storms.
With mostly seniors living in the high-rise, panic began to set in when residents realized they couldn’t charge their oxygen, use their CPAP machines or keep their insulin cold.
“We had one working outlet,” said Bodick.
Lights stayed on in the first-floor hallways, and one outlet worked in the common area of the building.
“Charging phones (was) our last priority,” said Ivy Henley, 50, co-vice president of the Towers tenant association.
Henley said she designated times for people to charge their medical equipment and cellphones.
With just one outlet to go around, tenants were in a dire situation. Members of the tenant association took on leadership roles to keep everyone calm until help arrived.
Residents who were able to use stairs delivered food and charged oxygen for residents who were immobile without the building’s elevator or their electric wheelchairs. Bodick and the three other association members had a list of tenants and checked on each person periodically.
The building ran out of food by Wednesday night.
“Our dumpster is filled with spoiled food,” Bodick, 64, said.
Buffalo Township Fire Department volunteers came by Wednesday with a big batch of hot dogs for the tenants, Bodick said.
“Nobody had any food, and we were so hungry here,” Bodick said. “They brought us a roaster full of hot dogs.”
Everyone made it out “by the skin of their teeth,” he said.
Despite power coming back around 10 a.m. Thursday, residents were transported from the building to Citizens Hose Fire-Rescue-EMS in Natrona Heights, Harrison.
“Now we don’t have food,” Henley said.
The Southern Armstrong Regional Police Department oversaw the transport of residents.
Chris Fabec, Southern Armstrong Regional’s chief, said Citizens Hose was able to provide a consistent source for residents’ medical needs. He said no residents needed to be taken to the hospital.
“We’ll be transporting people throughout the day and then see what needs there are at the end of the day,” Fabec said Thursday morning.
Some EMS workers stayed behind in the Towers to assist with residents who didn’t want to be transported with any medical assistance they might need.
“Finding help was the biggest challenge,” Bodick said.
Henley said a lot of the residents are unable to drive. And in the initial couple of days after the storm, those able to drive couldn’t go certain places because roads were blocked because of storm damage.
“We tried calling Red Cross, and there was an enormous wait time. We didn’t have power on our phones because we were waiting for people to get their oxygen charged, their hearing aids charged, their power wheelchairs charged,” Henley said.
The residents turned to social media when Henley was finally able to connect to Facebook.
As soon as the post went live, the community responded to the call for help. Aside from the hot dogs, some people brought snacks, others portable charges. The local Starbucks brought coffee. Bodick said one woman pulled her car up to the front of the building for hours and charged cellphones.
Despite the bleak situation, Bodick and Henley said they were grateful for how the community came together.
“We got the help we needed,” Henley said. “The lights are on now, and we’re just so grateful.”