NEW ORLEANS, La - Residents of a New Orleans apartment building that has been totally restored since Hurricane Katrina are losing sleep as they wait for it to be damaged again.
The source of their concern is the collapsing house next door, and the neighbors fear what happens when it falls.
Imagine how much sleep you would lose if you lived next door to a house that seemed to be on the verge of falling down. The roof of the two story home has collapsed, and now the sides are bulging outwards as if they could fall at any moment.
Julie James does live next door, and is losing sleep since the day the roof collapsed, and the sides began to fall.
“I came home, and I was walking up the stairs, and I looked up, and I realized I could see the sky through the window next door,” said Julie James, neighbor.
James and the tenants of the completely restored apartment building next door are just wondering what will happen to their homes when this structure collapses.
“Every day you come home, and it is leaning closer and closer to the house,” said James. When asked when he thinks it may fall, he said, “If the wind blows too hard, probably tonight.”
The second floor has become a mass or wreckage, but the downstairs was gutted, but is wide open. The neighbors have even seen children playing in here.
“You wonder about vagrants,” said James. “You wonder about the homeless possibly going in and sleeping overnight.”
James said she is tired of waiting for the city bureaucracy to take action in an urgent situation.
“I'm disgusted, because each time you call the city, what you get is, well, we'll try to send someone out there tonight,” James said. “I can't promise anything, and it is over and over again, we'll try. Finally it got to the point that I decided to send you an email.”
Looking at the iron gates, you might think at least the second story is secure, but you'd be wrong. So how much longer until this building collapses, and what happens if there are children playing in it at the time? Therefore, I am contacting the mayor's office, and asking them not only to declare it in imminent danger of collapse, but also to put it on an emergency list to be taken down as quickly as possible.
When it is finally demolished, it will be the end of an eyesore, and a safety hazard.
“I'll sleep a lot better,” James said. “I will sleep a lot better. All of us will.”
