A five-story building in North Miami Beach was evacuated due to structural defects found in a review every 50 years, authorities said.
The evacuation, carried out Monday, is the second in the area since the collapse of Champlain Towers South in nearby Surfside in June last year, which killed 98 people.
In the report dated April 1, engineer Brownie P. Taurinski wrote that the building “must be evacuated immediately,” the Miami Herald reported.
The 60-apartment building has been undergoing repairs since July of last year as part of the recertification process, the city said Monday.
City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey told the Herald he barely saw the engineer’s report Monday because it was emailed Friday and he didn’t see it over the weekend.
The residents of the building reacted with astonishment.
“I was walking the dog when someone told me that the building had to be evacuated,” resident Sebastian Rojas, who has lived there with his family for 25 years, told radio station WSVN.
“This is amazing. This is where I grew up, where I have all my things. Now I have to take everything with me, I have to think about what is important, what is not important, ”she added.
Another neighbor, Clara Ulffe, told WPLG radio: “They told us, ‘Pick up the lightest and get out of here.'”
The municipality announced that residents will be allowed to return to collect more things in a few days. Some neighbors said they were alerted by phone and given very little time to collect their belongings.
On Monday until 11 pm the neighbors could enter as long as they presented an identification.
The authorities gave them coupons to stay three days in a hotel. The Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and the Red Cross will help those in need find temporary housing, said Mayor Anthony Defillipo.
Shortly after the collapse in Surfside, authorities in North Miami Beach ordered the evacuation of the Crestview Towers Condominium. The residents of that building, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the one in Surfside, have not yet been able to return.