ABU DHABI // The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC) has offered shelter to 80 families – about 300 people – who were living in the building affected by a road collapse in Abu Dhabi’s Khalidiyah area on Tuesday.
The ERC Abu Dhabi branch provided 130 rooms in six hotels to house families after a directive was issued by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, president of the ERC.
The 14-floor building in Khalidiyah was evacuated after a road collapsed near by on Tuesday afternoon. Part of the road collapsed between the building, believed to be Al Khubairah Towers, and an excavation site next door, residents said.
Two residents said they had seen a crack develop in the road over the past few weeks.
The ERC will be covering the costs of the accommodation until experts and the Civil Defence determine what will be done to the building. The authority is waiting for assessment reports currently being prepared.
The ERC received an urgent appeal from the National Commission for Crisis and Emergency Management to provide shelter for the residents in the building and to arrange the necessary care for families. They worked in coordination with Civil Defence authorities to complete the process of evacuation and shelter.
Dr Mohammed Ateeq Alfalahi, secretary general of the ERC, said that the directives of Sheikh Hamdan came within the framework of his efforts to strengthen the role of the ERC in the domestic arena and to work in coordination with the concerned authorities in case of emergency.
Dr Alfalahi said that Sheikh Hamdan had been monitoring the damage to the building and its impact on the population, as well as the process of evacuation, and providing shelter and comfortable housing for them. He added that the authority was keen to provide adequate alternative housing, which takes into account the comfort of families and contributes to the normal conduct of their life.
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