NEW YORK - Nicole Urban walked home from lunch with friends last Saturday toward her apartment. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
When she got near her apartment at 50th and 2nd streets, her life changed.
Emergency vehicles littered the block. Urban thought there had been a fire.
She walked another block to get to her apartment building. A police officer there stopped her, saying her building had been evacuated.
Urban, a Monroe native and MHS graduate, didn't know what had happened. Her cell phone was dead.
She was in the middle of a sea of people, an unfamiliar crowd, and she had to get away.
"It's New York, and there's a lot of people. There was a lot of chaos," Urban said. "I just wanted to get out of there."
It wasn't until she went to her boyfriend's apartment and turned on the television that she got first glimpse of the reason for the fire trucks, ambulances and swarm of strangers on the street.
A 19-story crane, attached to an apartment tower under construction next door to Urban's six-story apartment building, broke away and toppled like a tree onto buildings as far as a block away, including the one Urban lived in with a roommate on the third floor.
Urban had seen the construction and the crane on her walks. She noticed it didn't look quite right. She wasn't the only one. Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor and vice president of the Manhattan neighborhood's association, told the Buildings Department the crane was not sufficiently braced against the building. Retired ironworker Kerry Walker, who lived in the top-floor apartment of the townhouse that was destroyed, had complained the crane appeared dangerously unstable.
Officials say a preliminary investigation shows the crane toppled when a steel collar used to tie it to the side of the building fell as workers attempted to install it.
Seven people died. Urban's roommate was home at the time of the collapse. Urban said the impact of the collapse "jolted" her roommate across the bathroom.
"She thought there had just been a bad accident," Urban said. "But when she looked out the window, she saw smoke everywhere.
"It was sheer panic," Urban continued. "There was debris and smoke all over the staircase," to get to street level.
Urban finally was able to charge her phone and found out her roommate was OK. She called her parents, Paul and Kay Urban in Monroe, to let them know she was OK.
"I'm glad she wasn't home," Paul said. "She's OK, but she started crying when she talked about what had happened."
Urban found out Thursday that she lost her home. Management for the building her apartment is in told Urban they were letting her out of the lease.
Her apartment suffered no direct damage, but three apartments in the building "were ripped off" by the crane, Urban said.
Urban said management told her it would be at least six months to a year before anyone would be allowed to live in the building. The 27-year-old doesn't plan to wait.
"My lease is up in August, and why would I want to renew a lease in a building that I'm not sure if it's stable or not?" Urban said.
Urban was allowed Thursday to re-enter her apartment. A police officer escorted her to the third floor, where she had 10 minutes to stuff as many of her belongings as she could into a few bags.
"They can't let us out of the lease, give us our security deposit back and that's it," Urban said. "I have a lot of stuff that's still in the apartment."
Urban said she is trying to find out her legal rights and how she can get her possessions back. For now, she's got a place to live, temporarily, and her company, Estee Lauder, has been supportive.
Work will soon begin on finding a new place to live.
"At this point, I have a few clothes, and the money I normally live on," Urban said. "Really generous people in my life have given me support, financially and emotionally."
When she got near her apartment at 50th and 2nd streets, her life changed.
Emergency vehicles littered the block. Urban thought there had been a fire.
She walked another block to get to her apartment building. A police officer there stopped her, saying her building had been evacuated.
Urban, a Monroe native and MHS graduate, didn't know what had happened. Her cell phone was dead.
She was in the middle of a sea of people, an unfamiliar crowd, and she had to get away.
"It's New York, and there's a lot of people. There was a lot of chaos," Urban said. "I just wanted to get out of there."
It wasn't until she went to her boyfriend's apartment and turned on the television that she got first glimpse of the reason for the fire trucks, ambulances and swarm of strangers on the street.
A 19-story crane, attached to an apartment tower under construction next door to Urban's six-story apartment building, broke away and toppled like a tree onto buildings as far as a block away, including the one Urban lived in with a roommate on the third floor.
Urban had seen the construction and the crane on her walks. She noticed it didn't look quite right. She wasn't the only one. Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor and vice president of the Manhattan neighborhood's association, told the Buildings Department the crane was not sufficiently braced against the building. Retired ironworker Kerry Walker, who lived in the top-floor apartment of the townhouse that was destroyed, had complained the crane appeared dangerously unstable.
Officials say a preliminary investigation shows the crane toppled when a steel collar used to tie it to the side of the building fell as workers attempted to install it.
Seven people died. Urban's roommate was home at the time of the collapse. Urban said the impact of the collapse "jolted" her roommate across the bathroom.
"She thought there had just been a bad accident," Urban said. "But when she looked out the window, she saw smoke everywhere.
"It was sheer panic," Urban continued. "There was debris and smoke all over the staircase," to get to street level.
Urban finally was able to charge her phone and found out her roommate was OK. She called her parents, Paul and Kay Urban in Monroe, to let them know she was OK.
"I'm glad she wasn't home," Paul said. "She's OK, but she started crying when she talked about what had happened."
Urban found out Thursday that she lost her home. Management for the building her apartment is in told Urban they were letting her out of the lease.
Her apartment suffered no direct damage, but three apartments in the building "were ripped off" by the crane, Urban said.
Urban said management told her it would be at least six months to a year before anyone would be allowed to live in the building. The 27-year-old doesn't plan to wait.
"My lease is up in August, and why would I want to renew a lease in a building that I'm not sure if it's stable or not?" Urban said.
Urban was allowed Thursday to re-enter her apartment. A police officer escorted her to the third floor, where she had 10 minutes to stuff as many of her belongings as she could into a few bags.
"They can't let us out of the lease, give us our security deposit back and that's it," Urban said. "I have a lot of stuff that's still in the apartment."
Urban said she is trying to find out her legal rights and how she can get her possessions back. For now, she's got a place to live, temporarily, and her company, Estee Lauder, has been supportive.
Work will soon begin on finding a new place to live.
"At this point, I have a few clothes, and the money I normally live on," Urban said. "Really generous people in my life have given me support, financially and emotionally."