FORT LAUDERDALE – Residents at Springbrook Gardens on the Intracoastal were forced to evacuate their condo building after it was deemed unsafe.
They loaded furniture into their vehicles on Friday.
Saltwater has taken its toll on the building that is more than 70 years old.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Warren Sackler, who has lived in the building since 2007, said.
Sackler stuffed belongings into a grocery cart a friend helped wheel across them the street to a temporary apartment.
He’s still in shock after the condos-hired engineer found problems with the building’s foundation and ordered residents to “vacate.”
“He said the building is gonna fall down. It’s condemned,” Sackler said.
The engineer wrote in a letter Tuesday to residents because “deterioration has made the building no longer safe,” he was “revoking their safe for occupancy letter” issued in July .
Initially residents were told to be out by Friday. But on Thursday when winds were topping 30 miles per hour from Hurricane Helene, the engineer said residents should leave immediately.