DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- After days indoors waiting for Hurricane Irma to pass, residents in the Kings Point neighborhood of Delray Beach peeked outside for a look at a post-hurricane world.
Overturned trees and yard debris littered the streets, but one family had damage far greater than the rest.
Their roof is now on the living room floor.
“I decided to go open the door and I’m like 'holy,'” said Lauren Gralnick, a neighbor who lives nearby and was one of the first to the scene. “This was scary. All you can hear is this wind.”
Roof has collapsed at Kings Point apartment in #DelrayBeach from #hurricaneirma. @WPTVhttps://t.co/uIkEU4eHrppic.twitter.com/gmLqRkHrqs
— Merris Badcock (@MerrisBadcock) September 11, 2017
Gralnick said her first thought was to search for people inside.
“I was, I don’t know, mortified is the word that comes me,” Gralnick said. “All I cared about was those people, the two people, that couple. Are they in there?”
Fortunately, the family was not home when the roof caved in. However, according to a maintenance man at Kings Point, it is a miracle there was not more damage.
“The walls are not solid,” he said. “They are like cardboard.”
To survey the damage, firefighters used new technology rather than risk the lives of their crews.
“With a drone, we can fly over the entire community,” said Palm Beach County Fire Dept. spokesperson Albert Borroto. “With the collapse, we can see an entire bird’s eye view of the entire building at once, and it allows us to see the impact that the hurricane has had.”
At the time of this report, neighbors said the family had not yet returned home.
However, because the damage is so severe, they now no longer have a home to go back to.
If you see damage in your neighborhood, please do not call 911. Instead, contact your local Emergency Operations Center to report damage there.
