“Corruption kills!” sign outside the partially collapsed Davenport apartments on Tuesday, May 30, 2023. Photo by Starting Line staff
To read more of Amie Rivers' article, please click here.
Residents and those who have been inside an 80-unit apartment building that partially collapsed in downtown Davenport on Sunday said they were not surprised by the situation because the building was in such poor shape.
(Don’t know anything about the collapse? Catch up with Ty Rushing’s excellent recap here.)
Rescued just before demolition scheduled
Lisa Brooks, a paralegal, had only lived in apartment 403 on the building’s fourth floor for a couple of months.
Current and former residents said feeling their building shake was common at The Davenport, built in 1906 and centrally located in the city’s downtown.
So Brooks slept right through the shaking Sunday, though she noted she could smell something odd.
She was awakened Memorial Day Monday when she heard onlookers yelling from outside.
“I heard people say, ‘Is anybody in the building?’ And when I went to the window, I saw two firemen on the bottom,” she said. She still didn’t know what happened and thought she could simply come down the stairs, but firefighters told her to wait, brought the ladder truck around and got Brooks out of the window.
It was hours after Davenport city officials said they thought there was no one left in the building—and just hours before the city planned to demolish what remained.
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