Dallas Parking Garage Facade Collapses During Storm
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Powerful storms on Monday brought strong wind gusts and heavy rain to parts of North Texas including Dallas. Emergency crews with Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to reports of damage, with some of the worst found at a parking garage in the Turtle Creek neighborhood.
The cement facade came crumbling off of the six-level parking structure for residents of the Taylor Luxury Apartments. Debris fell onto a utility van parked at ground level as the facade collapsed on Monday evening. That van was still pinned underneath the concrete on Tuesday morning, and several other vehicles continued to be trapped inside of the garage.
Nobody was injured during the parking garage collapse. The van's driver was inside of the apartment building when the debris started to fall. Not even many vehicles were damaged by falling debris. Still, fire officials blocked off several streets in the area as an extra precaution, and the parking garage continued to be temporarily fenced off early Tuesday morning.
"It could have been really bad if people would have been walking around here," said Allan Springer with Dallas Fire-Rescue on Monday night. "It's right around getting-off time in the afternoon and people are out and about."
Officials began cleaning up the mess on Tuesday. Security guards are letting residents leave, but nobody can get back inside of the parking garage until the building inspector determines that it is safe again. Some apartment dwellers opted to use Uber on Tuesday morning so that their cars could remain inside of the garage. Many other residents are worried that their vehicles will not be available during the upcoming July 4th weekend.
Contractors spent Tuesday morning surveying the damage. One security guard said that he expects everything to open up later on Tuesday afternoon. The exact cause of the collapse is still under investigation.
"The resident I talked to -- that might have been in the garage -- said that he thought it might have been lightning," explained Maddie Espinosa. "He heard a loud crash when it happened, so it could've been part of the structure already falling off or from the lightning actually striking it."
"This is the only place where the weather can actually kill you," added apartment resident Justin Kane. "On the east coast, you may get some snow. The weather is bad here. It's crazy."
Max Murphy 2:56:02-10 "Yeah, it's pretty bad! I thought the whole thing because someone said, hey thanks he garage collapsed. I came out and realize it was just a façade that have fallen."
