A 15-story parking garage in Westchester County partially collapsed on Wednesday, damaging a number of cars parked on the floors below — and leaving scores of people searching for other ways to get home.
The parking structure on Hale Avenue near South Broadway in White Plains had a partial collapse just after 9 a.m., with aerial views showing the center of the roof level having caved in. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
From a garage next door, the damage to the interior levels could be seen, with about half a dozen cars smashed together on the fourth and fifth floors.
A photo from the scene shows an upper floor leaning diagonally onto the floor below it, crushing vehicles in the process. About 14 to 15 vehicles were in the affected zone where the floor collapsed, officials said, about six of which were visibly damaged. The other cars in the area appeared to be unimpacted.
“I looked to the right and there was a huge sinkhole in the parking garage floor,” said Siobhan Rossi, who works in the high-rise next door and managed to drive away from the fifth floor before the garage was shut down.
“It was very nerve wracking. I didn’t know which way to go, if it was a secure structure or leave. I have small kids at home, God forbid,” she said.
The privately owned parking garage consists of 15 levels and serves all of Westchester One employees. It was not clear when the garage would reopen, or when those who parked their inside would be able to drive them home again.
The extent of the damage to the garage was not known. The city of White Plains was waiting on an engineer to check the stability of the building and give them the green light. Meanwhile, crews were working to shore up the garage and construct columns to ensure the structure’s safety.
City officials were grateful the collapse occurred at the time that it did — because had it been an hour earlier, as people were coming into work, the situation could have been different.
“If it was 8:30 in the morning, who knows what would have happened,” said White Plains Commissioner of Public Safety David E. Chong. “So we are blessed that there wasn’t anybody inside the garage.”
A cause of the partial collapse was under investigation. Officials didn’t immediately share information on potential violations and past work at the privately owned garage.