The Silver Spring Penguin

Larry Taylor marched across Fenwick Lane with a dozen dress shirts slung over his left arm. Six weeks ago, he and his neighbors were evacuated from their Charter House apartments after a basement flood knocked out power. On Saturday, they were allowed to return. There was just one more hoop to jump.

The building had no hot water, and a county building inspector would not allow residents through the door until the problem was fixed.

“Everything else has gone wrong,” Taylor said. “It’s only fitting that this happen.”

It wasn’t the first time water problems kept Taylor from his home. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters drove him to leave the Gulf Coast region for Maryland.

In December, five feet of water filled the Charter House basement, rendering the building uninhabitable. Tenants were forced to live with family or, like Taylor, take up residence at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Georgia Avenue. On this damp, chilly morning, it was time for Taylor to come home.

If only the hot water were running.

“It’s not fair that these things keep happening,” Taylor said as he stood outside the Charter House. “It’s really discouraging.”

As tenants waited to hear from the building inspector, Taylor described his exile at the Crowne Plaza.

He was grateful for the hotel staff’s hospitality, but he had to pay for garage parking, or else feed coins into a meter. During the holidays, he felt an “empty spot” in his heart that kept him from mailing Christmas cards to friends.

“All my cards are upstairs” in the apartment, he said.

Just then, the Charter House’s front door opened, unleashing a pungent, moldy odor onto Fenwick Lane. Residents who waited in the lobby now waved their neighbors to join them. The hot-water issue had been resolved to the building inspector’s satisfaction.

Taylor instantly headed into the building, where a closet was ready to receive his dozen dress shirts.

Photo by Rock Hopper for the Silver Spring Penguin.