Building in downtown Cedar Rapids collapsed more than 100 years ago

Cedar Rapids, Iowa – First responders were searching for people for five days after the collapse of a building in the Miami area.

Hours after the building collapsed eleven people were confirmed dead and more than 150 are still missing but the first responders didn’t give up and continued their search and rescue operation.

A similar collapse occurred 108 years ago in Cedar Rapids. Bricks fell of the same building in July 2020 also. The back wall of the Lyman Building collapsed in 1913. 8 people were underneath at the time. The last body from the debris was recovered after a week.

According to Mark Stoffer Hunter, collapses like this one were more common in the past.

“Many of them involved lots of people involved such as theatres and hotels where there were fires, roof collapses and wall collapses,” said Stoffer Hunter.

The Lyman building fell due to the usage of poured concrete. Also, the contractor did not give enough time for it to settle. The facility was later renamed as the Iowa Building.