MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Several residents at a Miami Gardens apartment complex have been displaced after rain storms caused part of the building’s roof, which was under construction, to partially give way.
The incident has left some residents at the West Garden Villas Apartment Complex, in the area of Northwest 177th Street and Seventh Avenue, with their units leaking.
“As soon as we came in, water was everywhere,” a resident said. “It was leaking from the bedroom to the bathroom, in the front where we eat, by the kitchen and so on. What are we going to do? You know what I mean?”
According to the city, a group of workers were on the roof earlier Wednesday. Residents said they have been fixing the roof for some time, but the heavy rain caused part of it to give way.
Cellphone video from inside some of the units showed damage resulting from the water. Another video showed plaster and spackle on the kitchen floor of another unit.
“My bed is wet and my clothes in the closet– I got my shoes there, my clothes — everything got wet,” resident Rusberg Georges said.
Workers returned to the roof Wednesday afternoon to patch up the leaks.
However, for some residents, they have been told their power has been turned off, and they will need to find a new place to stay for a couple of days. On Thursday, building management announced the power had been restored.
“The building should be supported enough for it to not do any type of damage in our household because we pay for it every month, and we pay a lot just for two bedrooms,” a resident said.
Takiyah Thomas lives at the apartment complex, and her unit was one of those units condemned by officials after Wednesday’s incident.
“Since I work from home, my computer, I had to transfer everything. It’s been a hassle,” Thomas said. “Now, we’re at a hotel. They gave it to us until tomorrow morning, which is an 11 o’clock checkout time.”
The building’s management company said they gave the affected residents $900 to use for food and finding a place to stay. They also said they are going to try to pay for any of the items damaged on Wednesday.
“They told us we had to get two days’ worth of clothes, and they’ll let us know the situation by tomorrow,” Thomas said. “They don’t know. Hopefully, it will be fixed, but what the damage is inside of our apartment, it’s not possible to get fixed in two days.”
Management also said while the roof was being pulled back so workers could access it, the majority of the damage was to the building’s ceiling when the rains moved through.
On Thursday, repair crews could be seen working on the roof once again, but residents cannot return to their units without the all clear from the fire department.
“Hopefully, it’s to our condition that we can live in, but according to the fire marshals, it’s not even livable, the entire building,” Thomas said. “I’m not sure what they can do to accommodate all of us.”
No injuries were reported.
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