One week after Iowa building collapse, Rochester condo evacuated over stability concerns

ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) — Less than a week after an apartment building partially collapsed in Iowa, more than 140 people were evacuated from a condominium in Minnesota after a structural engineer expressed concerns about its stability.

Officials in Rochester, Minnesota, ordered residents of the 15-story, 94-unit Rochester Towers Condominium to evacuate Friday afternoon, police said.

Residents were advised to find temporary housing elsewhere while short-term shoring work is done to the building structure, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

They will not be allowed back into the building until Monday at the earliest, city spokeswoman Jenna Bowman said.

In Davenport on Saturday, workers were removing pieces of the collapsed apartment building to control falling hazards and support recovery efforts, the city said on its website.

The six-story Davenport apartment building partially collapsed on May 28. Rescue crews pulled seven people from the building initially and escorted 12 others out. They later rescued two more people.

Three men remain missing, and officials said there was a “high probability” they were at home when the building partially collapsed and that their apartments were in the collapse zone.

The search for survivors ended on Thursday and work was begun to shore up the building for the recovery efforts.

The work to eventually bring down the building came amid questions about why residents weren’t warned about the potential danger even after a structural engineer’s report issued just days before the collapse indicated a wall of the century-old building was at imminent risk of crumbling.

AP – 2023-06-03T20:06:29.459Z

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