Residents of a senior housing facility in Phoenix returned to their homes Tuesday afternoon after power was restored, a day after being knocked out by a powerful monsoon storm that rolled through the Valley Monday.

More than 100 residents were left without air conditioning, forcing the Phoenix Fire Department to move many of them. All were back home Tuesday afternoon.

“The bus returned with all 30 seniors,” said Tamra Ingersoll, a city of Phoenix spokeswoman. “Everyone is back in their units.”

Phoenix Fire Capt. Jake Van Hook said crews earlier moved several residents from the Washington Manor, near 11th and Monroe streets, to another senior center near McDowell Road and State Route 51.

Paramedics took four residents to a local hospital for reasons including heat-related symptoms. Three were older than 70, Van Hook said.

Nearly half of the 120 residents at the facility remained on the property, despite the lack of air conditioning. Of those, 20 gathered in the community room and 25 refused to leave their units, Van Hook said.

Maria Baker, a 64-year-old Washington Manor resident, said, “There is a lot of sick people here that need care. When the A/C goes off, it’s like you’re suffocating.”

John Magallanes, 68, said the community room was his refuge after the outage.

“They brought a whole bunch of fans and air conditioning in the community room, everybody is in there right now,” he said Tuesday afternoon just before the power was restored.

Earlier Tuesday, Phoenix firefighters assembled two portable generators and air conditioners and carried several residents, some in wheelchairs, down flights of stairs to get them to the ground floor.

“To me, I’m stressed out because I can’t be standing on my feet all day long,” Magallanes said.”I’m getting close to 70 years old. It’s getting hard,”

Resident Evelyn Diaz, 68, said this was the first power outage she has experienced at the facility.

“I’ve been here for 11 years, and I’ve never experienced nothing like this,” Diaz said. “All the food is going bad in the refrigerator. I hope they fix it.”

Ingersoll said power was restored at 2:30 p.m. and units were cooled to a suitable temperature before residents returned. 

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