ABU DHABI // A housewife described yesterday how she was awoken by what she thought was an earthquake, and found the balcony outside her third-floor bedroom had collapsed to the ground.
"I was sleeping and I woke up alarmed, my heart kept hammering," said Mrs Awad, who lives in the apartment on Salam Street with her husband and their five children, and her husband's mother and sister.
The glass door to the balcony has now been removed, leaving a gaping hole in the bedroom wall. "We removed it because we were worried the glass would start crashing inside the room," said Mrs Awad's husband Zachria, 50, a mechanic.
Mr Awad's mother is blind. "She might walk in and fall,"his sister said when she saw the hole in the wall. For safety, the family have now moved to the other side of their home in the Al Otaiba building.
Several balconies were damaged and windows smashed after scaffolding protecting the building from nearby demolition work began to collapse in high winds at 10.30am on Thursday.
The Awads were visited by the company in charge of the scaffolding and told everything would be fixed - but not told when.
Despite the upset, the family were in a cheerful mood yesterday, baking sweets and doughnuts to celebrate the Prophet's birthday while relatives gathered in the living room.
"We are Palestinians, we can handle it," Mr Awad joked. His wife said she was worried mostly about where she would hang her laundry now they had no balcony.
The ground next to the damaged building was scattered with fallen wood, glass and iron bars, and several air-conditioning units.
"Those fell off our relative's house on the first floor," Mr Awad said.
The scaffolding continued to collapse as Thursday wore on. "In the evening the wood kept moving and back forth like a sail," said a supervisor from Safety Zone, the company hired to remove the scaffolding. Tenants said it finally fell off early on Friday morning.
As pieces of broken scaffolding rained down on the street, traffic police warned residents to move their vehicles, and cordoned off the area with tape.
Traffic police, municipality and ambulance workers remained at the scene through the day and night on Thursday. No one was hurt in the incident.
By Friday afternoon the scaffolding had been brought down to the third floor of the building.
"We've been trying to remove it carefully since the crash happened, but the wind is not helping," said the Safety Zone supervisor. "We cannot lift the crane, we are taking it gradually and step by step. The scaffolding was firmly secured and it is hard to detach it."
He said the scaffolding was installed last July by another company. "The duration for these should be three months, or six months max."
He said they had found no inherent problem with the scaffolding, but it was not designed to cope with the winds of more than 30kph on Thursday morning.
One second-floor tenant let workers inside his house to see the broken glass on his balcony.
He said the wooden structure kept waving "like a flag" all night, and believed the problem lay in the protective structure being too tall. "Usually the scaffolding is wooden for the lower floors, but on the top floors they use a green net, so when there is wind it can go through it. But here they had it all wood from top to bottom," he said.
Yesterday afternoon, workers were still trying to detach the remains of the scaffolding, having cleared it down to the second floor.
hdajani@thenational.ae
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If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Infobox
Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the next stage of qualifying, in Malaysia in August
Results
UAE beat Iran by 10 wickets
Kuwait beat Saudi Arabia by eight wickets
Oman beat Bahrain by nine wickets
Qatar beat Maldives by 106 runs
Monday fixtures
UAE v Kuwait, Iran v Saudi Arabia, Oman v Qatar, Maldives v Bahrain
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
RESULTS
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Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Getting%20there%20and%20where%20to%20stay
%3Cp%3EFly%20with%20Etihad%20Airways%20from%20Abu%20Dhabi%20to%20New%20York%E2%80%99s%20JFK.%20There's%2011%20flights%20a%20week%20and%20economy%20fares%20start%20at%20around%20Dh5%2C000.%3Cbr%3EStay%20at%20The%20Mark%20Hotel%20on%20the%20city%E2%80%99s%20Upper%20East%20Side.%20Overnight%20stays%20start%20from%20%241395%20per%20night.%3Cbr%3EVisit%20NYC%20Go%2C%20the%20official%20destination%20resource%20for%20New%20York%20City%20for%20all%20the%20latest%20events%2C%20activites%20and%20openings.%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
Company profile
Date started: December 24, 2018
Founders: Omer Gurel, chief executive and co-founder and Edebali Sener, co-founder and chief technology officer
Based: Dubai Media City
Number of employees: 42 (34 in Dubai and a tech team of eight in Ankara, Turkey)
Sector: ConsumerTech and FinTech
Cashflow: Almost $1 million a year
Funding: Series A funding of $2.5m with Series B plans for May 2020