More than 70 residents forced out of their homes by a wall collapse at a West Palm Beach apartment building last Thursday will be away from home at least a few more nights.
Private engineers hired by Ram Realty, owners of Alexander Lofts, say they found more cracks in the building Monday afternoon that will need to be reinforced before the building is deemed safe.
On Thursday 200 square feet of brick from the building's east wall collapsed and fell, ripping through a one story law office three stories below.
Four people were sent to the hospital. They're all expected to be okay.
The cracks engineers found Monday afternoon are in the north wall of Alexander Lofts. Engineers are calling the cracks superficial but they're causing enough concern to keep more than 70 people in hotels for a few more nights.
"I've been here since Thursday night" said Meredith Harper. She's been staying at the downtown Hyatt in West Palm Beach with her cat "Couscous".
What she thought would be a short stay has stretched to five nights and counting for herself, Couscous and more than 70 other Alexander Lofts tenants put up at various hotels.
"There's 13 rooms here for us" said Harper. But since their stay was unexpectedly extended Monday afternoon, management for Alexander Lofts sent out a notice asking tenants in seven of those rooms at the Hyatt to head to another hotel.
"I mean it's like, you know, an inconvenience. I mean like, who wants to pack up and move again?" said Harper who is actually able to stay at the Hyatt thanks to her cat.
"They said that if you have a pet the Hilton does not welcome pets so I will be here with Couscous" Harper said.
Harper says she was able to get into her apartment on Monday afternoon to grab some much-needed supplies. While she wished she could just stay she says what she saw provided her with some additional patience.
"In the front there's a lot of scaffolding now and, you know, there's a lot of construction workers out there looking very concerned" Harper said as she started to laugh.
Once engineers hired by Ram Realty, the property owners, determine Alexander Lofts is safe, a city engineer for West Palm Beach will need to double check their work before anyone can move back in, according to a city spokesman. At this point engineers say Wednesday is the earliest that might happen.
