{"id":466794,"date":"2026-02-10T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466794\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T23:13:10","slug":"iqaluit-woman-says-housing-authority-took-nearly-3-days-to-fix-flooding-in-her-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466794\/","title":{"rendered":"Iqaluit woman says housing authority took nearly 3 days to fix flooding in her home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Water leaves permanent damage, Joanne Manning says, but she does not want to move<\/p>\n

When sewage water from a backed-up toilet and kitchen sink started to flood Joanne Manning\u2019s home early Friday, she immediately called the Iqaluit Housing Authority.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Murky water flows over Joanne Manning\u2019s kitchen sink. She tried calling the Iqaluit Housing Authority dozens of times Saturday and Sunday in an effort to get somebody to fix the problem. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)<\/p>\n

She called. And she called. And she called.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have called them like 30 times already,\u201d she said Saturday in an interview at her public housing unit on Nipisa Street. By that time, her toilet had stopped running but the kitchen sink continued to overflow.<\/p>\n

Manning said that all told, she called 40 times on Friday and another 12 times Saturday morning before someone finally picked up.<\/p>\n

When she did get through, she said, she was hung up on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys answered the phone, I\u2019ve been calling for two days,\u201d Manning said she told the person at the housing authority, who said the office phone has been \u201chaving issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSo because your phone has issues, nobody\u2019s answering me?\u201d Manning asked.<\/p>\n

The call ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just hung up on me. Are you serious?\u201d she said, before dialling again.<\/p>\n

When the same person picked up again, Manning asked for their name but the call ended again.<\/p>\n

So Manning called back, but it went to voicemail.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been doing this for two days,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearly three days after the flood, which was contained to her bathroom and kitchen floors, housing authority workers arrived Sunday night to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

Manning\u2019s plumbing struggles at her home, where she lives with her dog, started early Friday at about 3 a.m.<\/p>\n

She heard a \u201cbubble sound\u201d coming from her bathroom. When she flushed the toilet, the water started rising and flooded her bathroom floor.<\/p>\n

Soon her kitchen sink also filled up with murky water that overflowed onto the counter and floor.<\/p>\n

Manning tried to wipe up the mess on the floor as much as she could, using about a dozen towels and her bedsheets.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI had to throw them out, because they stank like \u2026 you know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

By then, her kitchen floor was covered with blankets and nearly all of her clothes that she used to sop up the mess.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t do anything,\u201d she said Saturday morning. \u201cI can\u2019t even wash my face. I can\u2019t even take a shower.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manning, who works for Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit, has lived in her one-storey public housing unit for the past 20 years. There were two similar sewage backups in the past, but each time the housing authority responded quickly.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Tasha Sandbach, general manager of Iqaluit Housing Authority, declined to comment on the situation when reached by Nunatsiaq News.<\/p>\n

As of midday Monday, the Iqaluit Housing Authority hadn\u2019t responded to another request for comment. The City of Iqaluit also hasn\u2019t responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The flooding was contained to her bathroom and kitchen floors, but Manning said it left permanent damage. Her kitchen cabinets became swollen from the water.<\/p>\n

Despite it all, she said she doesn\u2019t want to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere am I going to go?\u201d She said \u201cI\u2019ve been here 20 years. It\u2019s my home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Water leaves permanent damage, Joanne Manning says, but she does not want to move When sewage water from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-466794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}