Vehicle owners relieved as first cars freed from crumbling garage
Cars on the Slater Street parkade's upper levels still stuck, however
After nearly a month of waiting, some vehicle owners whose cars were trapped in a partially collapsed Ottawa parking garage finally have them back.
A 911 call on Feb. 26 alerted authorities to a damaged column inside the Indigo parkade on Slater Street.
In the early hours of the following morning, a portion of the parkade collapsed. Nobody was hurt, but a ramp was taken out and about 50 vehicles were trapped inside.
Several weeks later, vehicles on the first three floors of the structure are now being removed. It's the first of a two-phase plan to get them back to their owners.
"It's kind of one of those real surreal things that happen to you," said Mae Whalen, who was able to retrieve her Chevy Volt on Friday.
Whalen was visiting Ottawa from Kingston, Ont., and had parked in the garage. She'd been at a conference and was surprised when she returned to see emergency services surrounding the building.
After three weeks of worry, she got an email from Canada Life, the company that owns the parkade, saying it was finally safe to start removing the first few cars.
"We are co-ordinating directly with impacted individuals to arrange for pickup," said an emailed statement from the company to CBC. "The safety of the site remains our top priority as we work to resolve this situation as quickly as possible."
On Friday, Whalen was able to pick up her car from a towing company. It was dirty, she said, but the vehicle itself and its contents — including her husband's prized Stetson hat — were intact.
"It was just really nice to see it again," she said. "It was really nice to see there was no damage to our car."
Whalen wasn't the only one feeling relief.
Pamela Warburton said she'd been frustrated by what she called a lack of communication from the garage owners — that is, until a week and a half ago, when she started to get some answers.
On Friday, her car was towed from the garage to her dealership in Sherbrooke, Que.
"I finally feel like I can take a deep breath and finally relax now," she said. "It's been [waiting] on one thing after another after another."
While she said she still has some loose ends to tie up — there are a few dents in the hood and some transportation costs for the garage to reimburse — she's happy to have her car back.
"At least my car is back in my driveway, and I don't have to beg my boyfriend to let me borrow his car," she said.
More work ahead
Those who own vehicles on stuck on floors four to seven of the structure, however, will have to wait for all cars on the lower levels to be removed first.
Once that work is done, construction crews can begin to build bridges to bring vehicles down one floor at a time.
That will take a week or more, Canada Life said, and owners will be contacted individually.
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