1. She woke up to feeling something strange.
2. Got up, went to other room. Tried to close the sliding door, but couldn't.
3. Heard a crack.
4. Saw a "2 fingers wide" line in the wall coming down from the ceiling, which got wider as she looked at it.
5.Ran back to bedroom, changed clothes.
6. Ran to dining room to grab purse and credit cards.
7. Took time to blow out a candle.
8. Ran to the stairs to descend.
9. She hears a noise when she's between 6th and 4th floors. Believes the building is falling.
10. Afterwards, says she lost everything - indicating her unit, No. 611, was destroyed in the collapse.
If her account is true, all of that transpired during several minutes. Perhaps as much as 5 to 10 minutes.
This means, the collapse was NOT "sudden" or even close to sudden.
Especially considering how long it takes a woman to get dressed.
The collapse was sudden; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR29pLccutY
Sounds alot like an escape from NYC
Like the onset of hyper inflation, some things start out slow but continue to accelerate.
I’ve watched two different videos. I’m guessing she was in the second section to fall. The center section just went all at once and probably weakened the other section a lot causing the cracks and noises.
It’s sad hers is the only account we’ve heard of somebody fleeing the pending disaster. Did other people just hunker down in their units thinking that was the safe thing to do?
I would have headed for the exit in my robe and left the candle burning. She wasted precious time changing clothes.
She should have just FLED !
Those side trips could have cost her her life !
I believe her account. And no, it shouldn’t take her 5 minutes to change out of a robe and throw on a dress and shoes. I see nothing incredible about her story.
After #4, I would have skipped #5,6 & 7 and gone straight to #8
The actual collapse was sudden if your on your frigen balcony having a smoke at 1 AM.
Pre collapse events were indicators of what was about to happen and suddenly..
Gesh quit nit picking
“Then it started getting wider and wider as I watched,”
Cool...stood and watched her apartment come apart at the seems! How wide did it get before she decided it was time to change clothes, blow out the candle, sweep the floor, check the thermostat, make her bed etc then split?
Sometimes it takes longer to figure out what’s going on. I would have thought of an earthquake first. Not right in Florida but in the vicinity.
The significant phenomenon that likely took place here was normalcy bias and Maria Monteagudo deserves kudos for doing something most people would not do. Most people would not believe what they were seeing and they’d call building maintenance, call their kids, send a text to someone asking about what was going on...and no doubt many people died in their apartments due to their inability to accept that an extraordinary event was taking place.
Monteagudo was smart enough to start making her way out of the building. I can’t blame her for getting dressed and then grabbing her ID on the way out. It was also very thoughtful of her to extinguish the candle as doing so may right now be saving a life...who knows?
In any case she took action.
Lots of people have died to the firm conviction that “this can’t be happening!”
Maria Iliana Monteagudo is not one of them.
Smart lady.
Good notes on the article. Freepers won’t have to read it.
The collapse WAS sudden.. The preparation for the structural failoure was not sudden, it had been going on for months and accelerated at the end before the sudden collapse.