OKEECHOBEE — About half of the bricks fell from the facade on one wall of the Okeechobee Utility Authority building Wednesday night.
OUA officials don’t know why. When OUA staff came to work on Thursday morning, they found a pile of brick and a broken lamp post on the Park Street side of the building.
The former bank building was renovated when OUA moved in. These concrete blocks were put up to fill the void where the windows are so the new facade could be applied.
The area was hit by storm winds and rain on Wednesday night, but officials don’t know how or even if the storm might have factored into the failure of the facade.
The damage is cosmetic, and did
not affect OUA operations on Thursday.
With the bricks removed, a portion of the original wall and windows of the structure initially built as a bank building can be seen.
The fallen bricks were cleaned up Thursday morning and blockades put in place to keep people from getting too close … just in case more bricks might fall.
OUA Executive Director John Hayford said as a temporary measure, they will shore up the wall and cover it to prevent water from getting between the facade and the building wall. He said the brick facade on the entire building will have to be checked.
