Jacqueline Tomlinson said shortly after she returned to her Morris Heights home from an exhausting overnight shift at work, she noticed a major leak in her closet Saturday. Tomlinson said she stores electric cooking equipment and many other electronics in the closet, which are now damaged.

“This got really really soaked,” Tomlinson said as she showed NY1 lots of wet items that had to be moved from the closet to her living room.

What You Need To Know

  • Saturday’s downpour led to leaks and flooding inside a Morris Heights apartment building that experienced a partial collapse on Dec. 11
  • The city’s Department of Buildings issued a violation to the landlord for failure to maintain the building
  • The FDNY says it appears an internal pipe was either clogged or broken, which contributed to the leak

Heavy rain hit the city Saturday, with all five boroughs seeing around three to four inches total.

For Tomlinson, dealing with this mess was just another headache after her building on Billingsley Terrace partially collapsed back in December.

“It was terrible,” Tomlinson said after being asked how her day was. “It was raining in my closet like it was outside.”

Since returning to her apartment in January, after a month of being displaced, Tomlinson’s family, who loves to cook, has not had access to gas to prepare meals with.

Additionally, Tomlinson said her apartment on the top floor was among the many that were robbed while residents were evacuated.

“I work at night,” Tomlinson said. “I’m supposed to sleep during the day. I haven’t been to bed yet. It’s tiring. Very frustrating.”

The city’s Department of Buildings says as a result of its inspection Saturday, officials issued a violation to the landlord for failure to maintain the building. Officials also said while they did not find any water pooling on the roof, they did find a broken glass skylight up there.

Tomlinson said after she took everything out of her leaky closet, she went downstairs and spent the next 45 minutes helping a neighbor sweep water from the building’s lobby.

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society, which represents residents of the building, say tenants are fed up with poor conditions.

“The water in the lobby just signals to us structural integrity issues with the building,” Zoe Kheyman, staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society, said. “For the water to penetrate from the roof all the way down to the lobby, it signals to us that this is a building that has gone through many, many years of neglect.”

The FDNY says it appears an internal pipe was either clogged or broken, which contributed to the leak.

Fire officials also say the leak appears to have no connection to the partial collapse in December, since it was in a different area of the building.