Venice Lofts residents on standby after being evacuated

Residents of Venice Lofts on Venice Island in Manayunk are still waiting to get back into their apartments off of Leverington Avenue. 

Businesses and residents throughout the neighborhood have been drying out since the flood waters of Hurricane Irene receded this morning. Clean up crews were out early Monday morning getting rid of mud and debris but residents NewsWorks spoke with said they didn’t care if there was mud on the ground, they just wanted to go home. 

Many along Main Street were lucky to find that the damage was negligible. Others were grateful that the damage wasn’t worse. Then there is a small faction that probably wants to say ‘I told you so’ when it comes to Venice Island in Manayunk.

Residents were evacuated from Venice Lofts on Saturday afternoon. Dranoff Properties, owner of Venice Lofts, stated on Monday that they are unsure when evacuated residents will be allowed back into their homes.

“We are still assessing the damage and continuing clean-up efforts. When we are finished, we will let residents know as soon as possible,” said the spokeswoman. 

Venice Island development has been a bone of contention with the Manayunk Neighborhood Council for more than a decade. There is a page dedicated to the major issue of flooding on the Island. The page is a play-by-play history between the MNC, developers who got their property built like Dranoff and those developers who have not like Neducsin and Maloomian.

The Dranoff spokeswoman declined to comment on how often the building had been evacuated since its completion in 2007.

Kevin Smith, president of the Manayunk Neighborhood Council, could not be reached for comment.