Residents of a Miami Beach-area apartment building in the sister block of the tower that partially collapsed last week are moving out in fear that their complex could also fall. Champlain Tower North residents are fleeing despite officials saying that they do not need to evacuate.

Champlain Tower North was constructed one year after Champlain Tower South – which crumbled around 1.30am on Thursday – by the same developer. The towers have the same design.

William Bradford left his apartment in the north tower in Surfside, Florida, with only items he needed after stressing out about the situation.

‘I’m just going back for my passport and documents,’ Bradford told Sky News. ‘I am very worried. I am 75 years old and I am living with the stress every day that this building is going to collapse.’

Bradford concluded: ‘I had to get out of there.’

On Saturday as more than 150 people from the south tower were till unaccounted for, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned that the north tower would possibly also have to be evacuated. However, authorities decided that it was not necessary.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the north tower had been inspected and nothing was ‘out of order’. He said the town was working on a plan to offer north tower residents a relocation site with support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Simultaneously, a 2018 engineering report by Morabito Consultants revealed that the south tower had ‘major structural damage’ and required many repairs.

‘The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas,’ the report stated. ‘Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.’

Developers of the south tower reportedly were accused of paying off officials to get preferential treatment on permits. An estate partnership that included the late Nathan Reiber developed the doomed 12-story doomed condo building, according to the Washington Post.

On Saturday, a family of four who did not wish to be identified packed their bags for a hotel close by.

‘We just want to move out, just for safety,’ one of the family members told The New York Times.

Nine people have been confirmed dead from the south tower collapse, including eight who were pulled from the rubble and another who died on Sunday at a hospital. There are still 152 people missing.

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