MIAMI – Residents of a Miami Beach building on the same street where a condominium collapse killed nearly 100 people were forced to evacuate Thursday night after officials deemed the building unsafe and ordered them to leave.
Miami Beach spokeswoman Melissa Berthier said around 4 p.m. Thursday that the city plans to post a building hazard notice and tell residents of the 14-story Port Royale building to leave immediately. At approximately 5:00 p.m., the housing authority sent residents a mandatory notice to leave by 7:00 p.m. This is reported by the Miami Herald.
Port Royal residents said they were told by Miami Beach city officials on Wednesday that the building would have to be evacuated, but the immediate evacuation notice wasn’t delivered until Thursday. WPLG-TV reports.
A building structural engineer’s report prompted the evacuation of the 164-unit building at 6969 Collins Avenue, which is undergoing a 50-year recertification.
The site of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex in Surfside, Florida, which collapsed in June 2021 and killed 98 people, is also on Collins Avenue, about 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) from Port Royal.
The disaster at a 12-story oceanfront apartment building in Surfside prompted the largest non-hurricane emergency response in Florida history, including rescuers from across the United States and even Israel to help local teams search for victims.
Engineers recommended additional “bracing” be installed at the Port Royale garage to reinforce areas requiring repair to support the damaged beam. Officials said they expect reinforcements to be in place within 10 days, the Miami Herald reported.
