Heavy Rain Causes Roof of FL Apartment Building to Collapse

DAYTONA BEACH — About 120 people were evacuated around midnight Friday after a pair of intense storms caused an apartment roof to collapse, causing water to flow onto every floor of the six-story complex, a city official said.

The National Weather Service reported high totals of 5-7 inches of rain across various parts of the region on Thanksgiving Day.

Kevin Shirk, a resident of The Overlook at Daytona Apartment Homes, 100 Seabreeze Blvd., moved his two pets into the driest section of his two-bedroom apartment Friday morning and stood around helplessly as water spread across his ceiling and seeped into his kitchen and living room.

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"I'm irritated," Shirk said. "I'm missing work to deal with this and it's not fun."

Renata Rosta, who lives in the building with her boyfriend, said the building has had a leaking problem for the entire 18 months she's lived there. She said she recently moved to another apartment on a different floor because of a mold problem and now she is having to deal with a flooding problem.

"We were packing up everything quickly and tried to save everything," said Rosta, who submitted videos to The News-Journal that showed water gushing down the stairwell. Another video showed about an inch of water in one of the hallways.

"I'm really disappointed and mad," said Rosta, who has tried unsuccessfully to get in contact with the property's management. "I have 2 dogs also. I need to go somewhere right now, not later or Monday."

Sometime around 10:30 a.m. Thursday, a severe thunderstorm roared through Daytona Beach and dropped buckets of rain throughout the northern portion of Volusia County. There were reports of a water spout spotted in the Atlantic Ocean just off the Daytona shoreline. Then another storm struck the area about 12 hours later.

One rain gauge in Ormond Beach had collected a total of 7.17 inches of rain while other gauges — from Pierson to Holly Hill — had 5 inches of rain, according to the weather service.

The wind gusts from the morning storm damaged more than a half dozen manufactured homes along East Colonial Circle in Daytona Beach.

Meteorologists estimated that the wind gusts from that storm topped 70 mph.

The morning storm soaked Daytona Beach and the surrounding areas. The evening storm had the potential to make bad conditions even worse.

"That storm could've dumped another inch of rain in some places," said meteorologist Randy Lascody, of the National Weather Service in Melbourne, referring to Thursday's second storm. He said it took almost the same path as its morning counterpart, which had already caused some streets to flood in Ormond Beach and DeLeon Springs.

The flat roof on top of The Overlook at Daytona Apartment Homes may have taken in more water than it could handle after the second storm of the day, Lascody said.

Daytona Beach Fire Department spokeswoman Sasha Staton confirmed that the building's roof had "structural damage" as a result of the heavy rains from Thursday.

An employee at the apartment building took a message that was not returned by a manager Friday.

Daytona Beach firefighters evacuated the building after the leaking was reported. There were no injuries to any of the occupants, Staton said, and those who didn't have any water drip into their apartments were allowed to remain.

"The Red Cross was called to assist these displaced individuals with a pet-friendly location until it is determined that it is safe for them to return to their apartments," Staton said.

Shirk said a crew had been working on the roof before Thanksgiving. He wasn't sure whether the construction was finished. Several pallets of metal sheeting and other materials were still on site Friday morning.

A video taken from a drone showed a crew on top of the building Friday morning and a tarp covering a northern portion of the roof.

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