North Miami Beach: The city of North Miami Beach ordered the evacuation of an apartment block on Friday afternoon, local time, after a review found unsafe conditions about 8 kilometres from the site of last week’s deadly tower collapse.
An audit prompted by the collapse of Champlain Towers South in nearby Surfside found that the 156-unit Crestview Towers had been deemed structurally and electrically unsafe months ago, the city said in a news release
“In an abundance of caution, the city ordered the building closed immediately and the residents evacuated for their protection, while a full structural assessment is conducted and next steps are determined,” City Manager Arthur Sorey III said in the news release.
The 156-unit Crestview Towers in North Miami Beach, has been declared unsafe. Credit:AP
The evacuation comes as municipal officials in South Florida, and statewide, are scrutinising older high rises in the wake of the Surfside collapse to ensure that substantial structural problems are not being ignored.
Evacuating residents hauling suitcases packed items into cars on Friday evening outside the Crestview, which was built in 1972.
North Miami Beach commissioner Fortuna Smukler rushed to the building on Friday afternoon. She said authorities were working to help the evacuated residents find places to go. She said with the approaching storm it was an especially stressful time for the residents. Smukler knows two people who are still unaccounted for in the Surfside building collapse.
“I ran here right away because this is important to me. I needed to ensure that what happened in Surfside doesn’t happen here,” she said. “It could have been our building instead of Surfside.”
CCTV footage of the Miami building’s collapse.
The mayor of Miami-Dade County had suggested an audit of buildings 40 and older to make sure they are in compliance with the local recertification process after the building collapse last week that killed at least 22 people and left more than 120 still missing.
After reviewing files, the city’s building and Zoning Department sent a notification that the Crestview building was not in compliance. On Friday, the building manager submitted a January recertification report in which an engineer hired by the condominium association board found the property unsafe. The city then ordered all residents to evacuate immediately.
“I am concerned that more buildings are in this condition. Hopefully, this is an easy fix. Thankfully, we have at least evacuated the residents and no harm will come to them or their pets,” Smukler said.
The Crestview condo association could not be immediately reached for comment on the delay between the January recertification report and Friday’s evacuation.
The Crestview Towers Condo Association said in a lawsuit in federal court that it suffered $US8.1 million ($10.7 million) in damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017. The condo association had sued its insurer, Liberty Surplus Insurance, for not paying the claim. Attorneys for the insurer did not immediately reply to emailed requests for comment.
A parallel lawsuit also was filed in state court in Miami. This spring, the parties asked that the federal lawsuit be dismissed and agreed to begin mediation in May in the state lawsuit.
AP
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