Hundreds of residents at a Miami condominium have evacuated after their building was deemed ‘unsafe’ – just a month-and-a-half after a Surfside condo collapsed and killed 98 people.
Residents of the 138-unit building at 5050 NW Seventh St began moving out with their belongings on Monday, after reportedly being ordered to clear out by 8am Tuesday.
‘My grandfather just comes in the house screaming that we have to leave immediately,’ a resident at the condo, Mya Ncastanedo, told WSVN. ‘If this building is demolished, there goes our property… and all our memories from growing up here.’
The building was placed on the unsafe building list in May after a city inspector took photographs, according to NBC 6. On July 7, the building was cited for multiple violations, including not obtaining a 40-year recertification indicating it was safe to hold people.
‘We obviously don’t feel that it’s safe,’ Miami Building Director Asael Marrero told NBC. ‘Structural integrity has been degraded by the contractor proceeding with the repairs that they were not authorized to do.’
Miami building department officials met with the condo association and an engineer on Monday. They determined that the columns were ‘structurally insufficient’ and then issued the evacuation order.
‘As can be expected, they’re upset that they have to leave their belongings behind and that this is happening all of a sudden,’ Miami City Commissioner spokeswoman Karla Fortuny told WSVN.
Fears around unsafe structures have gripped residents in the Miami area ever since Champlain Towers South partially collapsed on June 24. The disastrous collapse led to weeks of search and rescue efforts as crews tried to find survivors among the rubble. The only people found alive were discovered within the first hours after the collapse.
There are 2,439 buildings on Miami’s unsafe structure list as of Tuesday, city data shows.
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