At the Island Shores condos in northeast Miami-Dade, the moon is shining brighter than the lights inside the units.
The power is out, and it will be for another two weeks – and that is unacceptable, residents say.
Inside Nasir Qureshi's unit the stove is cold, the refrigerator is warm and his holiday spirit is quite dim.
“And you know how much the maintenance (is) for each apartment?” he asked. It’s $450 per month, he said.
An emergency notice is posted on Qureshi's door, and everybody else's, saying it will be 15 days before power is restored. The letter from the management company says special parts are needed to fix the power problem, but those parts won’t be available until after the new year.
“We are not living in a far-out some place – we are living in a big city. Call some engineers,” Qureshi said.
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On Christmas night at about nine o'clock residents heard an explosion. An electrical fire knocked the power out.
There are lights in the common areas, and the elevators are operating in the 11-story building. But if residents need lights or air conditioning, they are out of luck.
One woman said she is concerned for her mother, who lives at Island Shores.
“She can't stay here, she's not going to stay in the dark,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “You can’t really can't do anything, and I mean, you stay worried at night.”
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Qureshi said he could understand if the problem took a few days to fix – but not longer.
“I can hear one day, two days, but not two weeks, three weeks, what are the people going to do?” he said.
