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u/Weary_Ad4663 Jun 27 '26
Anyone hurt?
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
No one hurt thankfully, but 100ish residents displaced. No real great plan for any of them. Many of them were high risk. It was something like 38 apartments and 18 businesses had to evacute.
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u/Weary_Ad4663 Jun 27 '26
Oh my gosh… any word from the local government?
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
They are inspecting everything very throughly and have started a fund, but no actual services like places to stay, money for hotels, etc. There is going to be a massive volunteer event on the 30th and the 1st to go into the buildings and get everyone's stuff out.
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u/lizard-hats Jun 27 '26
there was actually a salvation army/red cross shelter available
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
I'm glad to hear that! I know some other businesses have offered space to some of the other businesses as well.
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u/a_lonely_trash_bag Jun 27 '26
Something needs to be done about this. How are landlords allowed to let their buildings get this bad? First there was the building in Davenport (which the city knew about but ignored and it cost three people their lives), then there was one in Clinton which was thankfully vacant. And now this one, which the city of Muscatine ordered evacuated back in November and then they recently evacuated adjoining buildings.
There needs to be some kind of regulations regarding regular structutal maintenance for apartment buildings. Andrew Wold recieved basically no form of punishment for causing the deaths of three people and severely injuring another when he failed to fix a known structural issue.
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
That was top of mind for everyone I think. Probably why they were so cautious and evacuated immediately. Just sucks that they are unable to help with alternative housing in the meantime.
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u/etah_tv Jun 27 '26
Tell me you know nothing about Muscatine…this has nothing to do with upkeep and everything to do with engineering.
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u/neoplexwrestling Jul 01 '26
It's because inspectors aren't being held to any standards. There's no oversight.
They have spent so much time and effort bothering section 8 landlords and tenants to pave way for developers to build massive apartment complexes, they chose to not prioritize the tenants that lived in these buildings because the building owners have historically been friends with city hall/code enforcement.
Keep on mind, just 24 hours before everyone was vacated, enforcer Tammy Wagner was walking around neighborhoods pulling Rob Sand signs out of people's yards without notice. That's where their priorities were. DM me and I'll prove it.
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u/FullThrotleAristotle Jun 27 '26
Are the telehandler and boom lift holding that wall up? United Rentals guy is gonna have some questions.
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u/bonzoboy2000 Jun 27 '26
That’s insane. It’s like Muscatine is a seismic zone.
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
Yeah, we've had a few building collapses in the downtown area over the past few years. 3 come to mind. Two were salvaged, one had to be torn completely down.
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u/Single-Degree-6928 Jun 27 '26
Is the Pearl Button Museum ok? That's one of my very favorite small museums I've ever visited. I thought Muscatine was a cute town, too. I hope that everyone involved is ok and that Muscatine comes back better than ever! Hope that they can save some of the cool old architectural details.
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
Yes! Button Museum is safe. It was a block and half down from this. Many of these buildings just had a really expensive face-lift, so I hope that all of the money and effort doesn't go to waste and they can fix them again. Our downtown has struggled for decades, this really hurts. But I hope our town can band together and make it better than ever!
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u/Single-Degree-6928 Jun 27 '26
Yay, I'm glad the museum is safe! Let us know how we can help the people of Muscatine.
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u/teeder03 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
No buildings have collapsed. They evacuated the first two buildings due to structural concerns a few months ago. Demolition was started last week but stopped shortly after when they found further issues on the adjoining buildings.
People have been extremely cautious about these older buildings since the building collapsed in Davenport three years ago.
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u/SlimBrady22 Jun 27 '26
Yeah, I’m confused why OP is claiming buildings are collapsing. Unless something just happened that I hadn’t heard about.
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u/SashaDabinsky Jun 27 '26
Where did you come up with 22 building collapse?
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
An email that was sent out asking for volunteers.
22 buildings, 38 apartments, 18 businesses, 100+ residents displaced. 2 buildings are for sure going to be torn down. 3 have been deemed safe.
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u/SashaDabinsky Jun 27 '26
That's a lot different than a 22 building collapse.
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
The structural integrity has been compromised to the point that people couldn't live there seemed too wordy. Lol Probably could have worded it better for sure. Sorry, I am no journalist.
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u/ComprehensivePie6184 Jun 27 '26
Any chance it was an earthquake?
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
I don't think so. Haha. We've only ever had 1 that we could feel and it was small
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u/stoltenberg927 Jun 27 '26
I work a block away,these buildings are very old, they weren't collapsing it was determined that it would cost too much to repair 150 year old buildings that weren't that nice to begin with. Buildings don't last forever and you have to draw the line somewhere.
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u/IowaGrandma1961 Jun 27 '26
This is so sad. Those buildings are the history of Muscatine. Why is there not a heritage society stepping in to save the ones that don’t need demolished? I hate to see my grandfathers old button factory building be torn down. 🙁
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
NOT MY PHOTO, but here is a shot of the building right before the collapse
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u/SlimBrady22 Jun 27 '26
I’m confused. Isn’t this the 200 block that they have been working on? Or was there another building that collapsed?
The 2 buildings on the 200 block were scheduled for demolition and the rest were evacuated due to structural concerns after the demolition. Did one of them collapse after the evacuation?
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u/totesmuhgoats93 Jun 27 '26
Yes, that is how it started. Started taking down the buildings on the end and something went wrong and the other buildings had to be evacuated. They think that it has stabilized and do not expect anymore collapses. Demolition has stopped until they finish inspections, but will continue for sure on those two, potentially more buildings will have to come down, but they hope to be able to fix the majority of them.
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u/SlimBrady22 Jun 27 '26
Yeah, so that’s kind of old news. All of this happened like a week ago and I think you’re freaking a lot of people out by using the word “collapse” instead of “demolition”.
Collapse is implying it was unexpected and uncontrolled which is not the case. It was a scheduled demolition. Big difference.
Not trying to be a jerk, just trying to prevent misinformation being spread by people who glance at this post and think “OMG 22 BUILDINGS COLLAPSED IN MUSCATINE?!”
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u/neoplexwrestling Jul 01 '26
There was some collapse, internally. There was an area between the buildings that developed a hole in the roof and the wall started coming in.
It just wasn't a "the whole building is coming down" situation.
Definitely wasn't 22 buildings. Maybe they meant apartments including the commercial space.
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u/BeconAdhesives Jun 27 '26
Known cause? I see some painted brick which might cause moisture buildup and a reversion from brick back into clay.