Elderly and disabled residents of Fay Towers can once again turn on the lights and enjoy a hot shower in their units.

A big generator is temporarily providing electricity to the 200 units in the 11-story high rise in Gilpin Court while permanent repairs are made.

Squirrels are being blamed for knocking out power to most of the building Sunday. The pesky rodents chewed up a main line into the building, according to Carol Jones-Gilbert, acting chief operating officer for the building’s landlord, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

“This was something unforeseen that we could not control,” she said. Management and staff “have been giving our best efforts” to ease residents’ concerns during the emergency, she said.

The temporary fix was installed Tuesday afternoon, bringing an end to the 48-hour outage, Ms. Jones-Gilbert said. Permanent repairs are expected to be completed by Friday, she said. Some of the replacement wiring had to be special ordered, she said, and the time to get it to the site extended the repair time, she said.

The outage began Sunday morning when power to units in Fay Tower and some nearby RRHA apartments went out, she said.

Power was restored to all of the affected units within five hours, but then went out again in Fay Towers, she said.

An internal generator kept the elevators working and kept the lights on in the first floor space and hallways, she said, but that’s about all.

She said RRHA made sure residents with medical apparatus that require power could hook their machines up to outlets in the community day room on the first floor, one of the areas the internal generator powered.

Ms. Jones-Gilbert said she and other staff, including interim CEO T.K. Somanath, repeatedly have visited with residents to keep them abreast of the situation and to provide reassurance. RRHA also has worked with partners to provide needed assistance, she said.

She said Senior Connections, which works with the elderly, provided water and refreshments for residents of the building earlier this week. In addition, she praised the city Department of Social Services for making an emergency allotment of food stamps available to alleviate any problems with spoiled food.