New 911 calls released this week paint a picture of some of the chaos at the Rialto apartments on Sand Lake Road back in March. It was the morning hundreds of units had to be evacuated after cracks and settling left some residents unable to even open their doors. In the 911 calls, people across from the apartment building report hearing a woman screaming. What seems to be one dispatcher speaking with another can be heard on another call, saying, “Their doors are um broken, they had to break a window to get out onto the patio.” Ross Ruppel was one of the residents who had to evacuate that morning on March 19. “It was so shocking,” He said. He went from a hotel to a short-term rental, to finally finding a home about 30 minutes away from the Rialto. His family moved in just shy of two weeks ago. It meant switching his daughter’s school just months before the school year ended. “It’s very tricky,” Ruppel said. “You wonder what it does for your daughter and her social development.”After hundreds of units were evacuated at the Rialto, engineers were brought in. They discovered a three-foot-deep by 15-foot-wide gap under the building.”That’s very scary,” Ruppel said. “We’re lucky to be out. We’re lucky to be here, I think.”Ruppel said for his family, the time since the evacuation has been spent focusing on things like finances and finding a place to live. They haven’t fully processed what happened. “We emotionally, physically, we just fall on the couch,” He said of himself and his wife. “We’re just done. We can both tell in each other it’s because of all of the pressure that we’re under.”Ruppel said he still hasn’t gotten his family’s things, including furniture, from his unit. He said the building is coordinating with folks to pack up their places so they don’t have to go back inside. He’s hoping to get that sorted in the next month. WESH 2 reached out to the county and to the company that owns the Rialto for the latest status update on the building.
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
New 911 calls released this week paint a picture of some of the chaos at the Rialto apartments on Sand Lake Road back in March.
It was the morning hundreds of units had to be evacuated after cracks and settling left some residents unable to even open their doors.
In the 911 calls, people across from the apartment building report hearing a woman screaming.
What seems to be one dispatcher speaking with another can be heard on another call, saying, “Their doors are um broken, they had to break a window to get out onto the patio.”
Ross Ruppel was one of the residents who had to evacuate that morning on March 19.
“It was so shocking,” He said.
He went from a hotel to a short-term rental, to finally finding a home about 30 minutes away from the Rialto. His family moved in just shy of two weeks ago.
It meant switching his daughter’s school just months before the school year ended.
“It’s very tricky,” Ruppel said. “You wonder what it does for your daughter and her social development.”
After hundreds of units were evacuated at the Rialto, engineers were brought in. They discovered a three-foot-deep by 15-foot-wide gap under the building.
“That’s very scary,” Ruppel said. “We’re lucky to be out. We’re lucky to be here, I think.”
Ruppel said for his family, the time since the evacuation has been spent focusing on things like finances and finding a place to live. They haven’t fully processed what happened.
“We emotionally, physically, we just fall on the couch,” He said of himself and his wife. “We’re just done. We can both tell in each other it’s because of all of the pressure that we’re under.”
Ruppel said he still hasn’t gotten his family’s things, including furniture, from his unit. He said the building is coordinating with folks to pack up their places so they don’t have to go back inside. He’s hoping to get that sorted in the next month.
WESH 2 reached out to the county and to the company that owns the Rialto for the latest status update on the building.