Posted on 06/24/2021 10:08:36 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
Champlain Towers is a 12 story condominium building located in the small, beachside town of Surfside, Florida, about six miles north of Miami Beach. Miami-Dade County police said 53 residents have been identified and located safely; however, as many as 99 people are reported missing. There were about 55 units in the tower that collapsed.
The collapse happened at approximately 1:30am this morning.
The building is 40-years old and is located in an area very familiar to CTH. This is an affluent community with many Jewish residents. Our thoughts and prayers are with the missing and their families. CCTV from a neighboring complex shows the center of the tower gave way first, with the rest of the structure collapsing into a pile of rubble. The cause of the collapse is unknown.
Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer said “the building was undergoing a required 40-year recertification to ensure its structural integrity, and that the building’s roof was being redone. She added that residents told her a building inspector had visited Champlain Towers on Wednesday, but she did not know what the inspector found. It is unknown if any construction activity contributed to the disaster.” (Miami Herald Article Link)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrived on scene this afternoon and gave a press conference:
The actual video at the link is sickening, almost unimaginable.
Prayers for the victims and families.
yes prayers up!
Makes you wonder what kind of work was being done on the roof.
I’m thinking the building was a victim of a sinkhole underneath it.
does someone want the land
for a bigger building?
Later reports suggest that the building, erected on reclaimed land, was sinking. Too much movement and building envelope issues could have impacted the integrity on the structure. Also, if this was a post-tension roof, they should have used ground-penetrating radar before making any new cuts or cores, since it could compromise the integrity of the roof.
Buildings in Florida need to be recertification and inspected every 40 years; this one was due or undergoing its evaluation.
Cracks, no matter how minor, should be thoroughly inspected by a structural engineer.
bookmark
Units sold in previous years were advertised for $650,000. (!).
That is horrible!
They had no warning for the first collapse, and no time for escape for the second one.
“...as many as 99 people are reported missing...”
This is summer weather: Some of the “missing” [snowbirds] would be found in New England or thereabouts.
Since it collapsed so early in the morning, everyone was likely home and in bed.
If it had happened during the day, the death toll would likely be a lot lower as people would have been out at work or shopping or something.
Stayed for a week over the year end holiday period in 2018 in the Alexander Hotel just a little further down Miami beach. Probably about the same age. Was in the process of receiving a major update and being shifted from timeshare apartments to full time condominiums.
The thing that makes me go “hmmm...” is the coincidence of the building inspector visiting Wednesday, apparently saying nothing to anyone, and the building collapsing early Thursday morning.
Hope this wasn’t a case of 1) the inspector feeling what ever problems that were observed were not that serious or, 2) the problems were serious but the inspector felt the need to consult superiors prior to ordering an immediate evacuation or, 3) the inspector had previous dealings with building management and already knew it was going to take a lot of “persuasion” before management would act to evacuate or, 4) (feel free to insert your own speculation here).
Before dismissing these possibilities out-of-hand, remember, this is Miami where a newly completed concrete pedestrian walkway collapsed onto a major highway (with 6 fatalities and 10 injuries) in early 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_International_University_pedestrian_bridge_collapse
However, it wasn’t until the final report was released with photographs that the general public got to see that the “CRACKING” the experts were referring to was much, much more severe that the ‘cracking’ most ordinary persons were probably imagining.
https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/2019_r_03.pdf
By the day of the collapse, the problem had been identified and government, consulting engineering and construction company personnel were actually on site discussing what to do about the structure. There was no urgency expressed by the attendees. So traffic was flowing unrestricted underneath the bridge when it fell down a few hours later.
Good Lord. Saying Hail Marys.
Agree. Sinkhole.
Hamas ?
“before management would act to evacuate or, 4) (feel free to insert your own speculation here).”
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4) Perhaps the building inspector was not a building inspector.
There’s a survivor who was out walking her dog. I suspect the animal won’t have to wait a moment when he whines for the rest of his life.
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