SARASOTA - Dolphin Tower sits empty for a seventh day.

Its residents are scattered around town. One is Harriett Oxman and her 95-year-old husband, who moved from the penthouse to a nearby Best Western.

"This is not a three month 'round-the-world cruise," she said. "This is to be dislocated, forced to leave and loose ends. Not knowing when you can come back."

Last week the city ordered Oxman and more than 100 others to evacuate after engineers say a main concrete slab, the one holding most of the building up, had failed.

Crews scrambled to stabilize the tower. Now residents have learned they must find somewhere else to live for up to three months.

"How do you permit a building to be occupied and give a certificate of occupancy and 36 years later they say there is faulty construction," asked Oxman, while questioning the city employees on the job when Dolphin Tower opened in 1974.

"Well, it's as we suspected," said John Colon, who heads the tower's board of directors.

His mother also has an apartment in the building which she lives in part of the year.

"Thank God quite a few of the residents are gone," Colon said.

Crews, working around the clock, have already set up 450 additional pilings, he said.

And the tower houses more than residents. It's also home to several businesses on the east side of the building along Palm Avenue.

The city, however, has allowed the stores to remain open, and says the building is safe for customers.

The city plans to host a special meeting with Dolphin Tower residents and engineers at 6 p.m. Thursday at City Hall, 1565 First St.

Colon said that starting at 8 a.m. Friday residents have another chance to collect more belongings.

"Everyone will get an hour to move whatever they need to move, anything that will fit in a shopping cart they'll be able to take," he said.

"I'm still in good spirits. This is the best building in Sarasota," Oxman said. "I'm not worried. This building is going to be here for many, many years. The question is who is responsible for having this happen."

Reporter Jackie Barron can be reached at (813) 221-5708.