Subsidence and faulting due to ground water extraction has been going on on the Gulf Coast since we started drilling wells.
When you pull the water out of the interstitial spaces, the sediment contracts.
The Houston Galveston area has places that are or were subsiding a few inches per year (causing slip faults) and I don’t see why it would be any different in Florida.
I’ve read interesting engineering, real estate and assorted speculation online today and nothing seems to click in my mind. If it’s about bad rebar and/or concrete and building materials, or construcing tall buildings on sand, this should happen more often. It doesn’t. What makes THIS building different from alllll the other tall buildings on the beach? Different enough to make it collapse? It’s just bizarre and freakish.