‘Grab anything light and get out of here’: Residents evacuated from condemned Miami condo

NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Dozens of people were left suddenly homeless Monday when their south Florida apartment building was deemed unsafe and condemned.

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Fifty-five families live in the five-story building in North Miami Beach, WFOR reported.

“They said, ‘Grab anything light and get out of here,’” Clara Ulffe, a resident, told WPLG. “I have my other sister who has four children. This is crazy.”

Police officers began to evacuate the condominium on Monday after a structural engineer firm found critical issues and said a “deflection in the elevation of the building’s floor slabs was required,” a city spokesperson told WTVJ.

Residents were told to get out immediately Monday and were given a small window of time Tuesday to return and retrieve any items they needed before the building was formally condemned. “I’ve had my whole livelihood in there and you have to take it out within an hour or two,” Sebastian Rojas told WFOR. “So it’s kind of astonishing. This is where I grew up. You have to figure out what’s important to you, what’s not.”

The building had been under construction, with units being repaired ahead of the condo’s upcoming 50-year recertification inspections, WTVJ reported.

All residents will get a full refund for April’s rent and will have their security deposits returned, WFOR reported.

This is the second building ordered evacuated in Miami since Champlain Towers South collapsed last June in Surfside, Florida, killing 98 people, The Associated Press reported.

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