'A loud crack': Housing units in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, collapse

Ellie Upton was sitting in her living room playing Yahtzee with her sister-in-law Wednesday night when she felt her entire home fall to the ground. 

She immediately grabbed her son, dog and her purse and ran outside, she told CBC News over text. 

"There was a loud cracking noise and then the house started shaking and then we felt it sliding," Upton wrote. 

Upton's unit was one in a four-plex in Cambridge Bay that collapsed on Wednesday, according to the territorial housing corporation. 

No one was injured and all tenants were relocated to temporary accommodations, Nunvut Housing Corp. spokesperson Alexandria Webb told CBC in an email. 

As of Friday, tenants were not allowed to access their units until an engineer on-site says it's safe to do so. 

The four-plex is owned by Northview — a major residential landlord in the North. 

Northview is paying for tenants to stay in a hotel in the meantime, Webb said.

Upton's said she was glad her other son wasn't inside when the house collapsed. 

"My younger son was out with his friends, which was good because his dresser and TV both fell into where they would have been playing," she wrote. 

Webb said Northview is covering the costs of hotels, food and basic essentials for tenants. She said they will also "cover the costs for hiring a company to assist with permanent moves when able to do so."

The housing corporation said it continues to monitor the situation. 

Upton, who moved into one to the units with her family in March, said she had noticed the pillars holding up the building were slanted.

She said when she noticed it got worse, she reached out to Cambridge Bay's housing authority, who she said assured her it was safe and someone from Northview would be coming to inspect it. 

Northview did not respond to CBC's request for comment.