Iowa Building’s Flaws Were Well Documented Before Deadly Collapse
The warnings about the old brick building on Main Street just kept coming.
There was an engineer’s report in February about a compromised wall. There was another report on May 24 noting that large patches of a brick facade “appear ready to fall imminently.” And on May 27, there was a 911 call asking emergency crews to check a side of the structure that seemed to be bulging.
Over months, assessments were written, work permits were issued and some repairs were made. Still, as alarm grew and complaints mounted, people were allowed to remain in their apartments at 324 Main Street in Davenport, Iowa, a city of 100,000 residents situated about halfway between Des Moines and Chicago.
But last week, a day after that 911 call, a section of the downtown building cleaved off and fell into a parking lot. Three men died, dozens of people were left homeless and half-collapsed apartments became dioramas of lives upended — kitchen appliances teetering near the edges of shorn-off floors, shirts still hung on closet hangers. All the while, residents and their families were left questioning why more was not done to stave off a disaster that, at least in hindsight, seemed all too predictable.
“I want the people who are responsible for this to know they have failed us and they need to be held accountable,” said Desirée Jane Banks, who had two children with Branden Colvin Sr., 42, a resident of the building who died in its collapse.
Source: The New York Times
