The rain caused a mudslide on Tuesday, putting an apartment building in jeopardy, and now the residents have no place to stay for awhile.
On Wednesday afternoon, local officials met with the building owner to determine when residents can move back into the building and how to proceed. What came out of that meeting is that more inspection must be done.
When the Coginchaug River swelled on Tuesday, it caused a mudslide that took out part of a parking lot and left a Newfield Street apartment building in jeopardy.
Tenants who were at the Charton Terrace apartments at the time said they felt the ground shake, then saw feet of earth sweep away from the side of the building.
"It sank down like 5 feet, then I left. I came back and it looked like a big bomb went off," said Steve Ryan, who lives in the apartment on the end of the building.
"You can see where the embankment just went down. It’s just one big mud puddle," Tracy Hall said.
The foundations of the buildings are completely exposed and firefighters are worried that more of the ground could collapse. They evacuated both apartment buildings and school buses brought 50 tenants to Middletown High School for a temporary shelter. Ambulances were called for tenants overwhelmed by the incident.
The building owner had an engineer evaluate the building and it was determined that the building was not safe to live in. Officials decided on Wednesday that engineers would have to investigate further and no one has been allowed back in.
Newington's Mobile Incident Command Unit was also brought in to assist Middletown. They are keeping a close eye on the ground to ensure that a bad situation doesn't get worse.
The city and Red Cross worked together to put the displaced tenants up in a hotel for the night. City officials says it could be three days to a week before the tenants are allowed to go home.
