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Nearly 3 Dozen Huntington Beach Apartment Residents Forced Out After Weather-Related Ceiling Collapse

HUNTINGTON BEACH (CBSLA.com) —    Nearly three dozen families at a Huntington Beach apartment complex were forced to evacuate their homes Sunday after several ceilings collapsed.

Officials said the collapses  on many third floor apartments of the Casa Del Sol complex was weather-related.

KCAL9's Erica Nochlin reported from the scene, the 21000 block of Brookhurst Street near Hamilton Avenue.

Thirty two families were evacuated in the two buildings - Building 4 (where half the units were affected) and Building 5 (where at least eight units were affected.)

Nochlin said the damage ranged from full ceiling collapses to tiny leaks.

Firefighters went door-to-door telling neighbors they had to leave.

Kurt Klatt just moved into his third floor apartment about three weeks ago. He frantically poked holes in his ceiling to keep the rain from pooling and causing a collapse.

"I dumped 20 gallons [of water] out," Klatt said, "it ran faster than my bathroom faucet at one point."

Another neighbor's entire ceiling came down.

That woman had to leave town on a business trip but her friend watched the ceiling come down.

"Pieces just kept coming down," says Eleanor DeMatteo, "and the water was dripping, dripping, dripping. It was raining actually more in her house than it was outside."

DeMatteo is packing up her own apartment and worried to what she might come home to.

"It's pretty devastating," she said.

The fire department said both buildings were in the process of getting new roofs -- equipped with solar panels -- and the contractor's tarp apparently failed.

"I can't think of once where we had this big of an issue from a roof not being protected," said Huntington Beach Fire Department Battalion Chief Jeff Lopez.

Residents like Klatt say they're still waiting for an explanation.

"I'm speechless," he said, "how could this be happening? How could they do such a poor job of tarping it. And then today, how could they just leave us to hang out to dry, so to speak by not doing anything to stop the second round."

Nochlin said the only good news for residents is that there were no reports of injuries -- and the property's owner said he will reimburse residents for hotel rooms."

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