Students attending the University of North Texas are dealing with disaster after a rowdy party literally brought the house down.
The floor collapsed under the feet of dozens of party-goers inside a third-floor apartment at The Ridge at North Texas. The complex is located off campus and is not operated by the university.
Inspectors spent Monday assessing the damage and told NBC 5 Monday afternoon it had been deemed safe for the majority of tenants to re-enter.
Some, like Amber Hornik, still cannot go home.
"I lost a lot of stuff," Hornik said tearfully. "It's just really sad to think about having to deal with all this loss and having to do it by yourself pretty much."
Hornik, a junior, and her three roommates were inside their first floor apartment when the floor collapsed two stories above.
Their entire apartment flooded after water pipes above their unit ruptured.
They said they were briefly allowed back inside Sunday to grab a few items. They snapped photos showing streaks on the walls and bubbles in the ceiling from all the water.
Roommate Rochelle Carney says her room has the worst damage.
"I actually have one of the upper floors' bathtubs in my closet. There is standing water in my room," Carney said.
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Carney says she doesn't have family in the area and has no place to go.
Hornik says there's no room for her at her family's Houston home because of Hurricane Harvey.
"My aunt and uncle are living in my room in Houston, so they have my bedroom, so I can't go back right now," she said.
For now, the students are being put up in a hotel nearby, and trying to finish fall semester.
"It's really hard having to go through all this because of someone else's mistakes and foolery," Hornik said.
About a dozen people received minor injuries in the collapse.
A spokesperson for the apartment complex said in a statement Monday afternoon:
"The majority of the residents of The Ridge at North Texas who were displaced over the weekend because of a floor collapsing will be permitted to return to their units this evening and resume occupancy. Residents of the three units directly affected by the incident will be permanently moved to other housing—most likely at a nearby property—as those three units are restored. Affected residents will have seven days’ rent credited to their accounts.
"Structural engineers and city officials have the deemed the building suitable for occupancy, attributing this weekend’s incident to a large party in the third-floor unit. The property cannot comment on specific questions related to cause or liability as this incident remains part of an open investigation by the Denton Police Department.
"The Ridge at North Texas apologizes for the inconvenience caused to residents and will be looking at possible additional steps to take in order to prevent another such incident."
