Rhonda Glover rests before leaving International Towers on Friday for the last time. The building’s tenants were forced to evacuate the downtown Youngstown high-rise because it’s next door to the heavily damaged Realty Tower. Glover will stay in a Boardman hotel until her new apartment in Pittsburgh is ready July 2.

YOUNGSTOWN — The final tenants at International Towers gathered their belongings and headed for an uncertain future after city officials required them to evacuate the downtown high-rise because of its close proximity to the heavily damaged Realty Tower that is in imminent danger of collapsing.

The last tenants left the building by noon Friday — the deadline imposed by Youngstown after getting a structural engineering report Monday that all buildings within a 210-foot radius of Realty Tower be closed as they’re in a “collapse zone.”

Realty sustained significant damage in a May 28 explosion.

International Towers, located next door to Realty on the city’s Central Square, houses about 170 lower-income residents including seniors and those with disabilities.

With the assistance of several organizations, and led by the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, the International Towers residents were moved to various locations, including the Baymont by Wyndham hotel in Boardman, Park Vista of Youngstown and a transition home operated by the St. Augustine Society in Youngstown.

They cannot return for at least 30 days — likely longer.

Marquis Dent, who’s lived at International Towers for the past six years, said of the residents: “We’re all mad. We’re all disgruntled. We’re all angry, distraught, confused. I can go on and on about the words I can use, but that’s how it all is. I have a deep connection to this building.”

Dent was home when the explosion at Realty occurred.

“I felt a rumble and an explosion and I fell out of my bed,” he said. “I thought maybe it was construction work until I went downstairs and saw the bank had exploded and debris was everywhere.”

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation, has preliminarily found that the gas line in the basement being cut was the reason for the explosion.

GreenHeart Companies of Boardman was working to relocate the building’s utility lines when the gas line was cut, according to city documents and officials.

The explosion caused the Chase Bank branch on the first floor to collapse in multiple areas — killing a bank employee — and forced the immediate evacuation of residents of Realty’s 23 apartments.

The Stambaugh Building, which houses the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel and across the street from Realty is in the “collapse zone.” It was closed by the fire chief May 28 because of the nearby explosion.

Phyllis Hathman, who’s lived at International Towers for the past three months, grabbed some basic items, including clothing, as well as her two cats, Midnight and Oscar. She’s staying at Park Vista.

“I’m hoping we can return,” she said. “I’m dealing with it. I’m staying positive.”

Gerald Aaron, who’s lived at International Towers for more than five years, said he’s “not panicking,” but the situation “is ridiculous. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Rhonda Glover, who’s lived in the building for about 18 months, was planning to move July 2 to Pittsburgh to help her mother.

She moved all of her belongings to a storage facility and will stay at the Baymont until it’s time to go to her new apartment.

“It’s overwhelming,” Glover said of the situation. “I understand the risk to the building and everything. I’m fortunate I have a place to go. A lot of people can’t say that. I hope they find placement. It’s not our fault. A lot of people are frustrated.”

When the explosion occurred, Glover said she was on her couch and almost fell off of it.

“I never heard anything that loud in my life,” she said. “The building shook. I thought the world was coming to an end. It was like an atomic bomb.”

Jessica Anthony, United Way’s community impact manager, said helping those who were forced to leave Realty and International has “been eventful. But I’ve never seen agencies come together as much as we have for this incident. They’re taken care of and will be OK. We’ll take care of them for as long as it takes.”

MAYOR REACTS

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, who was at International Towers on Friday, said: “It’s really hard to watch people leave their homes. The plus is all the community support we have for them. We’re not going to leave them by themselves. It’s not easy, but it’s something we’ve got to get through to protect their safety.”

Brown has given the Realty owners — YO Properties 47 LLC — until the end of the workday Monday to come up with a plan of action as to how they will stabilize the building or the city will hire a structural engineer to start the process.

“We’ve heard from Cincinnati Insurance (YO Properties’ insurance company); we’ve heard from everybody involved,” Brown said Friday. “We’ve given them a deadline for tangible hardline, what are you going to do, when are you going to do it by close of business Monday. If we don’t, we’re going to seek another structural engineer to let us know how to shore up the building to make it safe.”

Brown said the city has been in “very intense conversations with all involved and there’s negotiations going on so it’s hard for me to say what was in the conversations. We said you guys work on that and let me know by Monday what you’re doing with the building.”

YO Properties, Brown said, is “not moving fast enough. They’ve got to give me something tangible. It may be a long-term tangible, but they’ve got to give me something. The owner is negotiating with the insurance company. I’ve got to know what they’re doing by the end of Monday.”

The city hired Barber & Hoffman Consulting Engineer’s Cleveland office to do preliminary structural engineering work on Realty. That report stated the building was in imminent danger of collapsing and everything within a 210-foot radius had to be closed.

If YO Properties has a plan in place by Monday, Brown said, “We’ll assess what that looks like and when can the building be safe. If they don’t, we’ll look at a structural engineer to come in and look at how to make this building safe to at least get these (International Towers) residents back and the hotel open.”

Barber & Hoffman doesn’t want to be the city’s structural engineer if YO Properties doesn’t have a plan in place by Monday, Brown said.

The city has had preliminary discussions with national firms that specialize in structural engineering, Brown said.

“There are special structural engineers across the nation that do this type of work like the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11,” two of the country’s worst terrorist attacks, he said. “So there are some out there. We’re seeing if they’ll be interested in just coming to take a look. We’re not there yet. We’re just waiting and having them on the ready. We’ve had some preliminary conversations.”

Brown said “imminent failure” can “be today, tomorrow,” and “you can’t just let it sit there.”

BUSINESS GRANTS

City council on Thursday will vote to establish an “economic rapid response grant program,” with the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber Foundation as the fiscal agent.

The program will have $200,000 in it with businesses experiencing financial hardship eligible for grants of up to $10,000.

“Once funding is exhausted, applicants will be wait-listed in the event additional funding becomes available,” the legislation reads.

Guy Coviello, the chamber’s president and CEO, said, “We feel a sense of responsibility to partner with the city to help companies impacted by circumstances beyond their control. Much like the United Way has stepped up to help individuals, we’re stepping up to help the businesses. We will accept donations for businesses in need, and we will distribute 100% of the money collected.”

He added: “The city’s response has been swift and impressive. We’re proud to be partners. The mayor and I vow that our focus on downtown will be long term, continuing long after we recover from the explosion.”

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.