A dramatic scene played out in Wall Township, New Jersey, where an abandoned motel gave way and collapsed, its structure crumbling in a moment that was caught on video. The building had long stood empty, but its sudden failure still drew attention along one of the area's busy roadways.
The motel sat along Route 35, a well-traveled corridor through the region, and had once operated as an Economy Inn before it was left abandoned. Its slow decline had apparently been underway for some time, setting the stage for the collapse that followed.
Video from the scene captured the moment the marquee above the main entrance came crashing to the ground, a striking image of the building's failure. The footage showed the sign and the structure around it giving way, sending debris down at the front of the property.
The collapse did not come entirely without warning. Parts of the facade had already fallen before this latest failure, a sign that the structure had been deteriorating and losing its integrity in the time leading up to the collapse.
According to authorities, the timing points to the recent weather. The first wave of severe storms swept through the region over the past weekend, a stretch of punishing conditions that battered the area with wind and rain and left the aging structure increasingly compromised in the days that followed.
Police said the collapse appears to be linked to the storms that rolled through over the past week. The failure of the long-abandoned building added to the toll of a difficult stretch of weather that has left damage scattered across the region, even as crews continued to deal with its aftermath.
The motel sits in Monmouth County, one of the areas hit hard by the recent storms, and officials made clear the danger was not over. They said most of the structure had begun coming down the night before, and that crews were working to secure the area in case any more of it collapsed, warning that the site was dangerous and unstable and that the public needed to be kept well away.
Officials said they were in a holding pattern as they tried to reach the building's owner, who they said would be responsible for securing the property and making it safe. The collapse was not entirely a surprise to the town: according to authorities, township engineers had found structural issues and ordered the motel closed about a year ago.