Amputation frees woman from Davenport, Iowa building collapse

Police are still investigating the cause of the sudden collapse

Iowa surgeons had to amputate a woman's leg to free her from the rubble of a building that partially collapsed in the town of Davenport on Sunday.

"In the blink of a second," Quanishia White-Berry was trapped beneath the concrete and waited for hours before rescuers reached her, her wife said.

Two people are believed to still be trapped in a part of the building "not sustainable for life", Mayor Mike Matson said on Thursday.

A third resident is unaccounted for.

Additionally, a city employee who mistakenly marked a 25 May inspection of construction on the building as "passed" when it was incomplete has resigned, said Richard Oswald, Davenport's director of development.

City officials gave their latest update on Thursday on the collapse of the sixth-story property.

"This is something that we've never experienced before as a community, something that has impacted our entire community," Jeff Bladel, the city's chief of police said of the incident.

By the city's count, seven people were rescued in the first hour of the collapse, local news reported. It was hours before first responders found Ms White-Berry.

Ms White-Berry's wife, Lexus Berry, described to local media a chaotic scene as her apartment began crumbling around her on Sunday.

"There was nothing left but where I was standing," she told The Quad-City Times.

She said the couple was sitting in their fourth-floor unit when they noticed a disturbing crack above the bathroom doorway. They decided to grab their two cats and make a quick exit.

Ms Berry reached the door. Her wife did not.

"She was down there for seven hours," Ms Berry said. Surgeons and rescue workers eventually amputated her left leg above the knee to free her, Quad-City Times reported. She is now recovering in hospital.

Five residents remained unaccounted for on Wednesday but that number has since been reduced to three, after one was found to be in Texas and another located in Davenport, Mr Bladel said.

Police have contacted family members for two of three believed to be in the rubble.

They are still searching for information on a third, identified as Daniel Prien.

The building, a century-old former hotel, had 53 tenants, many who are now being housed in a nearby American Red Cross shelter.

The property has continued to shift and will be demolished, city officials have said.

Plans to bring the building down early this week were paused after a woman was found on Monday evening.

Locals have raised concerns some people could still be pulled from the rubble.

"We will continue to investigate," said Mayor Matson on Thursday. "We understand the significance and the terrible tragedy that families are going through."