NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Approximately 160 people still unaccounted for Friday after a condominium building near Miami beach collapsed earlier this week.
Albert Aguayo, a resident of West New York, New Jersey, and his family were in the building when it began to collapse and managed to escape the terrifying incident unscathed.
When the collapse began, Aguayo and his wife were in bed sleeping. "The entire walls shook, the entire building shook," he told 1010 WINS. "At the time I thought it was a loud clap of thunder."
Aguayo said his wife jumped out of bed as they both noticed everything shaking.
When Aguayo looked outside, he noticed there was a gray cloud had began to cover the building.
"I thought it was a fire, or a lightning strike or a transformer that had blown up," he said.
He quickly realized that what he was seeing wasn't smoke from a fire, but concrete dust.
The fire department arrived moments later and from the balcony on the 11th flloor, Aguayo asked a firefighter if he and his family should evacuate.
The firefighter quickly yelled back at Aguayo, responding "yes. you need to get out as soon as possible."
Agyuayo and his wife grabbed their children as well as a few belongings exited their apartment and noticed that the elevators and some of their neighbor's walls were already gone.
The family opened the door to the stairwell and saw a wall there had collapsed as well.
"We noticed it was an open-air stairwell," Aguayo explained. There were numerous building cracks which they were forced to jump over, he noted.
Aguayo and his family were supposed to fly back to New Jersey on Monday, June 28, but are trying to come home sooner.
Pretty much my family is emotionally drained, so I think it's time to head back," Aguayo said.
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