Via MetroNews Vancouver, “The incessant drone of the power generators at the Beladean Trailer Park in Surrey is loud enough that, standing outside, 88-year-old resident Lillian Bailey has to shout over them to be heard.

Not that Bailey, who has lived at the park for 22 years, ever really feels heard these days. The Beladean, once a happy place by her account, has been without power for two-and-a-half months thanks to an improperly supervised motel demolition on the site on Sept. 14.

Time and again the manager, Roshan Arora, whose brother owns the park, has promised to restore both her power and her phone line, which was also cut, but after so many broken promises she said she no longer believes him.

“I know my health has gone down now,” she said, noting the gas in her generator typically runs out around 4:30 each morning, at which point her difficulty sleeping can turn into difficulty staying warm.

“Now, I just want to go to bed and cover up my head and just don’t come out for a while. The stress has really got to me, where I wasn’t like that ever before in my lifetime. I’ve never lived like this.”

The residents living at the park have dwindled from 11 in September to just six.

Bailey, who was one of Canada’s first female maritime customs inspectors, is hoping the owners will relocate her and her ill 70-year-old son, Harry, to a manufactured home at another trailer park nearby, but those negotiations are ongoing.

In the meantime, the local MLA, Sue Hammell, has made it her mission to help the residents as best she can by alerting community organizations to try to find them more suitable housing. She also got on the city’s case when she realized the park was so run down that it had an open sewer running down a ditch on one side.

Arora blames permit and weather troubles for the delay in getting the power back on, which he has been ordered to do at least three times by the city.

“We are trying to find a suitable place for (Bailey),” he said on Friday. “…It may take time, but later or sooner the things will be sorted out.”

Arora and his brother Suvash Chander own and run a multimillion-dollar business, the Punjab Cloth Warehouse, which includes a 2,300 square-metre warehouse in Surrey, according to its website, as well as a second location at 8430 128 St., and export offices all over the world.”

Image: Jennifer Gauthier/Metro