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CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA)—Sixty people were evacuated from South Beach III Condos on Gulf Boulevard Tuesday after a crack was found in a support column, the Clearwater Police Department said.
Aurora Donnelly was inside her condo when she heard firetrucks outside her building.
When she went downstairs, she noticed dozens of first responders swarming her building.
“What goes through your head is Miami, right?” Donnelly said, referring to the Surfside Condo collapse. “So I’m running down the stairs saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope the building doesn’t fall down.'”
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Police told residents that work was being done on the condo building when crews noticed a support column beginning to split.
David Zusman, who also lives in the building, said he saw the column in question.
“There was a single column out of many columns and there was a little crack probably like this size right here,” Zusman said.
He explained that, though he and his family will be sleeping in a hotel tonight and all of their belongings are still inside the building, he’s grateful he was evacuated.
Zusman believes it’s better to be safe than risk a major tragedy.
“It’s a very inconvenient thing, but they were able to evacuate the building in time, nobody got hurt, and nobody will get hurt because I strongly believe the engineers, the fire department, and police are doing the right things,” Zusman said.
Nevertheless, he, Donnelly, and dozens of others were displaced for the night yet again.
“We’ve had so many things happen, you know the hurricanes, the repairs from the hurricanes, then they had a fire when they were trying to fix the garage it’s just been crazy lately,” Donnelly said.
News Channel 8 reporter Nicole Rogers asked, “Any idea when you’ll be back home?”.
“I’m hoping soon,” Donnelly said.