Public demands answers as city releases documents related to Davenport building collapse
DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - The city of Davenport released about 100 documents in connection to the partially collapsed building downtown, Wednesday evening.
It comes as crowds continued to protest at the site of the collapse, demanding answers from city leaders. Five people remained unaccounted for on Wednesday night.
Branden Colvin is one of the missing, believed to still be in “The Davenport.”
His daughter Brittney said, she just wants to see her dad, calling on officials to do more rescue operations.
“I’ve been quiet,” Colvin said. “That’s my dad in there, and there’s people in there. Something’s gonna have to get done. "
Just outside the fences put up by the city, many look to support the impacted families, with signs and candles.
Lacanna Dxion doesn’t live downtown but has been at the site every day often leading chants on a megaphone.
“This is the community I live in,” Dixon said. “We are all connected to each other, no matter what. No matter [what] race you are, no matter what religion you are. We are all together ... This is a tragic experience that we have here.”
The documents released by city officials may contain some answers the public is looking for. Four files uploaded to Davenport’s website examine the state of the building. The most recent is a letter dated May 24th.
The structural engineering reports document three visits to the building just this year.
A letter from the first visit in early February said the engineer noticed cracks on the external bricks of the building’s west side.
In a follow-up visit at the end of that month, things had progressed as that letter mentions a void in the wall.
Then, on May 23rd, five days before the collapse, inspectors noticed that several patches of brick were ready to fall.
Three days after the collapse, many demonstrators want to see their elected officials on the ground with them.
“Every day that I’ve been down here, I have not seen the mayor out here. I have not seen the aldermen out here,” Dixon said. “We’re asking you to stand up for your community, the people that voted for you to be in that office. "
In a statement, Wednesday night a city spokesperson said, Shive-Hattery, an engineering firm hired by the city, was on-site at the collapse.
The group used a forensic LIDAR drone to assess the damage and the building’s stability.
Andrew Wold, the owner of the apartment building, had an insurance firm and structural engineers also on-site to do an independent assessment.
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