After a 52-year-old woman was pulled unscathed Monday evening from a partially collapsed Davenport, Iowa, apartment building, the city’s mayor said a previously announced plan to quickly tear down the structure was “under evaluation.”
Lisa Brooks was rescued after more than 24 hours apparently hiding under a couch on an upper floor of the six-story structure, authorities and family members said.
Relatives said she heard the destruction and felt the building’s partial collapse Sunday and responded with fight-or-flight instincts: She dove under the furniture and stayed put.
She appeared to be in an unaffected unit, and when her phone started working again, she called for help, family members said.
A crowd of 100 or so onlookers welcomed her, even as some staged impromptu protests against the city’s decision to tear the 116-year-old building down as soon as Tuesday morning.
The rush, including a transition from search-and-rescue to recovery, is relatively unusual. In a collapse at a condominium complex, albeit a much larger building than the Davenport structure, in Surfside, Florida, in 2021, search-and-rescue efforts continued for two weeks. Ultimately, 96 people died.
Brooks was the second person rescued from the building after seven were initially pulled out immediately following the 5 p.m. collapse on Sunday, authorities said, bringing the number of rescued to nine.
A woman trapped in the ruble was rescued overnight and hospitalized in critical condition, authorities and family said Monday. Her wife identified the patient as Quanishia White-Berry.
An additional dozen or so residents had gotten out immediately with the help of first responders, Davenport Fire Department Chief Mike Carlsten said.
At a Monday morning news conference, Carlsten said the operation would shift to recovery mode, and by late morning the city had announced the shift had taken place. “Demolition is expected to commence in the morning,” the city said.
Recovery mode indicates a belief that no more survivors would be found. One factor is the apparent instability of the brick-over-steel and concrete building, which started life as the city’s premier hotel in 1907 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
At Monday’s news conference, the chief said the condition of the portions of the building that remain standing pose a risk to anyone inside, including rescue crews. “At this time the building is structurally unsound,” he said.