Some Long Islanders Without A Home For Holidays
LONG BEACH, NY (WCBS 880/CBS 2) -- Building inspectors said the seven-story, 40-unit Seabreeze Tower on the oceanfront in Long Beach is in danger of collapsing.
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WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs reports
Its residents have been ordered out of the building for the holidays and have been forced to find temporary shelter.
Neighbors are in stunned sadness and disbelief.
"Obviously, I feel like it's really sad. It's terrible," one woman told WCBS 880 Long Island Bureau Chief Mike Xirinachs. "Now, I'm going to worry about it."
The building is now vacant and officials said it will take at least a month before repairs to the corroding concrete columns can be made and the structure is deemed safe for occupancy.
"Very sad. Very sad. Very confused. Very angry," displaced resident Carlos Yera told CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan.
Yera and his cat "Murphy" were among those who had two hours to pack up and get out. A friend from work and his wife offered Yera a place to sleep.
Yera is considered lucky. The 20 others from his co-op were suddenly living in hotels and with relatives in other cities after an engineer found walls of this 1960-era building in danger of collapse.
By state law residents had to be evicted.
"We are going to try to get the people back in here as soon as possible," building manager Steve Iorio said.
But that could take weeks or months. Co-op owners must foot the bill expected to be in the hundreds of thousands. City Manager Charles Theofan will expedite construction permits.
"Everybody in Long Beach knows the spray from the ocean, the salt, the wind, all of those things have caused moisture to permeate the concrete and caused the rebar to rust," Theofan said.
The buildings commissioner here said this is a wake-up call for those who live by the ocean to have their homes constantly inspected, looking for rust and buckling.
"You could have cracks develop that you never had before. That could mean the building is shifting or moving, or the steel is pushing it out," Scott Kemins said.
With the holidays approaching the community is unsettled.
Still, Year said he is grateful to the friends who took him in.
"I just feel bad for the people who don't have a place to go, and the people who are so displaced. It's just very sad," Maureen Cushin said.
No one will be allowed back in for Thanksgiving. The hope now is they can return by the New Year. Residents said they pay thousands in maintenance fees and wonder how the building deteriorated so dangerously.
If engineers had not been alerted, experts said two feet of heavy snow could have caused a disaster with spontaneous "pancaking" or "buckling" of the seven-story structure.
