{"id":291029,"date":"2026-07-09T02:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291029\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T02:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:13:11","slug":"hundreds-remain-displaced-by-evacuation-order-from-troubled-midtown-nyc-high-rise-over-24-hours-later-naked-and-afraid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291029\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds remain displaced by evacuation order from troubled Midtown NYC high-rise over 24 hours later: ‘Naked and afraid’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people remained under evacuation orders Wednesday more than 24 hours after they were forced to flee over fears a Midtown high-rise would collapse<\/a> \u2014 including hotel guests completely caught off guard.<\/p>\n

Cris Stennett, 47, a public health researcher, said she learned about the evacuation early Tuesday as she stepped from her hotel room\u2019s shower and heard firefighters pounding on her hotel room door.<\/p>\n

The firefighters gave \u201clike 30 seconds\u201d to get out, forcing Stennett to leave behind her ID and several other necessities, she said.<\/p>\n

Hotel guests staying in the area were caught completely off guard by the emergency evacuation. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI was naked and afraid, afraid and naked. I mean, I still had stuff on my body,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely not a pleasant experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The multi-block evacuation order that scrambled<\/a> Stennett and others from the area near the afflicted high-rise at 235 E. 42nd St. narrowed a day later, but several buildings stayed off-limits \u2014 leaving scores of travelers, workers and business owners in limbo.<\/p>\n

Four buildings \u2014 815 Second Ave., 225 E. 43rd St., 231 E. 43rd St., and 235 E. 43rd St. \u2014 remained under a full vacate order, city officials said.<\/p>\n

According to Criss Stennett, firefighters gave her \u201clike 30 seconds\u201d to get out. Georgett Roberts\/NY Post<\/p>\n

The ground-floor restaurant at 217 E. 43rd St. \u2014 Yakiniku Toraji \u2014 was under a partial vacate order, according to officials.<\/p>\n

The city kept East 42nd and 43rd streets between Second and Third Avenue blocked to vehicles, but let local residents, workers and visitors return, so long as they weren\u2019t going to the four buildings still under an evacuation order.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on the evacuated Midtown building in danger of a \u2018localized collapse\u2019: <\/p>\n

Still, many New Yorkers were unlucky enough have business in the closed buildings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shawn Williams, 59, a retired corrections officer, said she drove from Harlem twice in as many days to pick up her pain medicine from her doctor\u2019s office in an affected building before a trip to Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Many New Yorkers were unlucky enough have business in the closed buildings. Georgett Roberts\/NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI came yesterday and I couldn\u2019t get in,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I change my appointment for today and now they are closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, I paid $35 for parking and today I paid $58, for nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to go to the ER to get medicine because I cannot do without it. I can go into withdrawal so I have to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city kept East 42nd and 43rd streets between Second and Third Avenue blocked to vehicles. Georgett Roberts\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Minas Galitsis, 47, the general manager at The Casual Greek Restaurant on the corner of 44th Street and Second, had to close the eatery Tuesday. <\/p>\n

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He was able to reopen the next day, but lamented the lost business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully nobody got hurt, but somebody\u2019s gotta be held accountable,\u201d Galitsis fumed. \u201cNo one\u2019s taking accountability for all the businesses that had to close.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people remained under evacuation orders Wednesday more than 24 hours after they were forced to flee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3530,65776,57,360,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-291029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-buildings","tag-evacuations","tag-metro","tag-midtown","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}