After Davenport building collapse, frustrated families say loved ones still missing

After authorities declared the end of rescue operations Monday at a partially collapsed Davenport apartment building, relatives of residents who gathered on the streets outside said they still had urgent questions about what had happened to their loved ones.

The six-story building at 324 Main Street contains 84 residential and commercial units, many of which were left exposed to the open air after part of the building's western façade collapsed about 5 p.m. Sunday. Officials said Monday morning that one person had been rescued from the debris and taken to a hospital with unspecified injuries, but that no other people were known to be missing. Trained dogs searching the rubble had not found any other trapped survivors or bodies, officials said.

Spectators watching from beyond the temporary fencing and caution tape, though, named several residents of the building they said were still unaccounted for. As morning drew on to afternoon, many in the crowd could be heard voicing frustration and suspicion about the lack of updates about who had or had not been found.

“I don’t want to come off in a negative way, but things like this, when they transpire and they’re not communicating, this is not winning over the people within the community,” said Antoine Smith Sr., who was awaiting word of an aunt and a close friend who both lived in the building.

Resident just missed Davenport building collapse, but mother-in-law missing

Mildred Harrington had moved into the building's apartment 403 less than a month ago. Living with her was her mother-in-law, Lisa Brooks, and several other family members.

Just before the collapse, Harrington said, she’d run to the store, leaving Brooks in the apartment. By the time she returned, part of the building was in ruins — including the section of the fourth floor where they lived. She said the family had received no word from Brooks, and feared she might be under the rubble. A report in the Quad City Times late Sunday said Brooks had been rescued after she called a relative on her cell phone.

Harrington said she had lost all her physical possessions.

“I’ve got the clothes on my back,” she said. “I don’t even have identification.”

Waiting for news on the steps of City Hall, just down the block from her home, Harrington said she’s worried about where she can go next.

“I’m sleeping at a relative’s house, and I don’t know how long they’ll let me stay,” Harrington said. “The Red Cross hasn’t told me nothing.”

Brooks is also an aunt to Smith, who described her as "like my mother." As he waited for updates about her and his friend, named Jerry, Smith said people were desperate for more information from authorities.

“Where’s the structure at? Where’s the communication at? Why do we have to run from here to here to here to here, and no one can just truly tell us directly, just go to this spot?” he said. “Why can’t they just have someone here or a few people here (to talk to us)?”

Nephew missed after not appearing at family party

Nearby on the corner of West Fourth and North Harrison, Johnnie Woods said she and others had gathered for a prayer vigil in the street Monday morning, each saying the names of their missing loved ones.

For Woods, that was nephew Branden Colvin, who lived on the fifth floor of the building. The first indication the family had of a problem, she said, was when Colvin didn’t show up to a family gathering Sunday in Rock Island.

“He didn’t make it, so then we heard about this building collapse where he lived, and we just assumed he must have been in the building,” she said.

Lending more weight to her fears was an encounter at a Red Cross aid station with one of Colvin’s friends who lived a few doors down, she said. The friend said he’d seen Colvin not long before the collapse, and that Colvin had said he was feeling sleepy. Colvin’s car also was still parked at the building at the time of the collapse.

“My other nephews and other people have been trying to call his phone, and he’s not answering his phone,” she said. “So we’re assuming something, that he can’t talk, his phone is dead, or something. Really, we don’t know anything.”

Woods said she wanted authorities to share more information about who was in the building, and who had or had not been located.

“You don’t have to say names, but you can at least say, ‘We have everybody out. We have the list of names from the apartment complex, and we got everybody out,’” she said.

Zach Boyden-Holmes contributed to this report

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Families say loved ones still missing in Davenport building collapse