El Centro water tower reportedly coming down following 7.2 earthquake
April 8, 2010 @ 1:01 am
The landmark El Centro water tower at Eighth Street and Wensley Avenue is apparently coming down for good,
The nearly 100-year-old El Centro water tower at 8th and Wensley is rumored to be targeted for demolishment following the Easter Sunday earthquake of 7.2 magnitude.
according to unconfirmed reports by neighbors and police who blame the major 7.2 magnitude Easter Sunday earthquake on the hastily scheduled demolition of the nearly 100-year-old water tower.
On Wednesday evening, tenants of the apartment complex sitting within a 150-foot radius of the old water tower, were asked to vacate their homes while city and state authorities determined how to deal with the obsolete and empty water tower whose structural integrity suddenly became a ‘risk’ to city dwellers.
Official word on demolition and/or replacement of the old water tank was not forthcoming, although notices to tenants pasted to the doors of a few residences of the El Centro apartments on Wensley just west of 8th Street explained that they were “in danger of injury or death” due to the integrity of the water tower hovering above them, and they were being ordered to vacate their apartments by both the city of El Centro and California’s CAL-FEMA emergency assisistance organization.
Most people within the 150-radius of the tower appeared to have evacuated their apartments, although no authorities were present at the site to confirm that late Wednesday night.
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It’s not pretty; but it’s special. Sad to see it go.
When I was on my way to work they had a crane that was demolishing it piece by piece.Kind of sad that that thing isn’t going to be there anymore.
Seeing that water tower come down was definitely an emotional thing. That tower/tank was there when my grandparents got here in the early 40s, and when my parents were married here in the early 50s, and when my sisters and I were raised here in the 60s and 70s. Three generations–at least–of history in that old tank. It was sort of a beacon of some significance. Now… let’s hope no one decides to tear down the old nitro plant that has for decades told us how far below sea level we are. :)