A LUXURY high-rise apartment block in Tampa was evacuated over flooding concerns – weeks after a condo collapsed in Miami leaving at least 97 dead.

Crews were called to the 35-story Element tower at 6am on Friday amid reports that a pipe burst and flooded the 27th floor.

Fire alarms were pulled and several residences were evacuated, Spectrum News reports.

Water reportedly gushed down to the floors below.

Resident Taylor Bensley said: “When the alarms went off, our first thought was what happened in Miami and that scared us a bit.

“Once the police came in and we were reassured, we were okay.”

One resident told NewsChannel8: “We gotta go to work. We can’t get upstairs to get our badges. My girlfriend is a nurse, so she needs her uniform and she has to go to work. I have to go to work and they can’t let us in.”

No injuries have been reported and the cause of the flood remains under investigation.

Residents were told to move their cars out of garages as the building is expected to remain closed for several hours.

Several rescue and police cars were at the scene this morning.

Our first thought was what happened in Miami and that scared us a bit."

The concern comes just weeks after part of the Champlain Towers South condo collapsed – leaving at least 97 dead.

It comes just days after a cracked pool deck at the doomed condo was raised 25 years before it collapsed.

A newly unearthed 1996 construction permit has revealed the building’s pool deck has had years-long problems.

Back in March 1996, Rob Sommer of Western Waterproofing Company of America wrote a letter to Surfside building officials about a "concrete structural repair," the Miami Herald reported.

The news outlet's Tuesday report revealed that the letter read: "The scope of work will be concrete structural repair in the parking garage.

"This type of repair entails removing loose concrete overhead, treating steel rebar with rust inhibitive coating, and patching back with repair mortar.

'WARNINGS FLAGGED'

"Also included in the garage will be urethane foam injection in ceiling cracks."

According to the report, documents show the pool deck slab — which is part of the underground garage's ceiling — needed "500 feet of cracks sealed and 20-square-foot slab replaced entirely."

This necessary construction was needed just 15 years after the building was built.

A woman uploaded a video to TikTok that allegedly showed water gushing from her mom's apartment building days after the Miami condo collapsed.

She wrote: "This is where my mom lives. Look at this building in Aventurs FLA (sic). I am traumatized that I lost people in the Champlain Building so I came to stay at my mom's and I find this."

The clip shows water gushing from what appears to be a basement of the building.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced an audit of all ocean-front buildings 40 years and older under the county’s jurisdiction.

One official had reportedly warned that the doomed Miami condo needed urgent repair work – just three days before part of it collapsed.

Emails obtained by the Miami Herald show building manager Scott Stewart reminding officials that he needed approval for work to go ahead.

More than 300 residents of the Crestview Towers Condonium were ordered to evacuate earlier this month after inspectors deemed the complex unsafe.

And, at least 70 people had to leave their homes after a report ruled a condo in Osceola County was unsafe, according to Fox35.

Source: Read Full Article