PENN HILLS, Penn. – The parking lot apparently tore in half right in front of a Penn Hills apartment building, leaving more than a dozen cars in a giant hole and nearly 50 people displaced.
PHOTOS: Penn Hills parking lot collapses
“It looked like it split right down the middle in kind of a V formation the 50 yards,” Penn Hills Police Chief Ronald Como said.
Como says the Frankstown Road car park fell 15 to 20 feet shortly before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“When the emergency vehicles responded, there was a woman in a car,” Como said.
That person was Alex Bowens.
“I was backing up to park and I heard a noise,” he said. “I paused for a minute because I thought it was loud thunder, or I hit a gate that was damaged”
In a split second, Bowens and his car fell.
“Things were getting into my car and into my eyes,” he said.
Bowens got out with the help of a sheriff’s office and is fine, but his car wasn’t so lucky.
Now Bowens and nearly 50 others are displaced
“What will I do without my house?” he asked. “At least I still have a job.”
Como told Channel 11 there was an abandoned warehouse that could be accessed through the apartment under the parking lot, where squatters may have lived.
Emergency crews are checking to see if anyone is under the concrete.
The building’s structural integrity will also be checked before anyone can re-enter, Como doesn’t have a timeline on how long that will take. The cause of the collapse is also under investigation.
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