Miami Beach condo collapse leaves 51 people unaccounted for
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 33 commentsBy: Emily Crane (Mail Online)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Authorities say 51 people are currently unaccounted for after a 12-story Miami Beach apartment building collapsed overnight, killing at least one - as hundreds of fire and rescue workers continue to scour through tons of rubble in search of any survivors.
Horrifying surveillance footage, obtained by WSVN, has emerged showing the moment the Champlain Towers South beachfront building collapsed at about 1.30am this morning in Miami's Surfside neighborhood, sending a huge cloud of debris into the air.
Authorities say one woman has already been confirmed dead and at least 10 people were injured when the building collapsed.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Sally Heyman told CNN that officials have yet to account for 51 people who are believed to have lived in the building. It was unclear whether any, or all of them, were inside at the time of the collapse.
Thirty-five people were rescued from the damaged building and 14 people, including a young boy, were pulled from the rubble in the early stages of the search operation.
Rescue teams are currently using machinery, dogs and sound technology to help trawl the wreckage for any survivors.
Authorities fear many more people may be dead or remain trapped under the rubble and warned the recovery efforts could last an entire week.
'The building has literally pancaked,' Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. 'That is heartbreaking because it doesn't mean to me that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive.'
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it was possible that more victims could be found in the rubble, saying: 'We'll hope for the best in terms of additional recoveries, but we are bracing for some bad news, just given the destruction that we're seeing.'
The surveillance video, obtained by WSVN , shows portions of the 12-story Miami Beach apartment building crumbling and sending a huge cloud of debris into the air when it collapsed in the middle of the night
A huge emergency search and rescue operation is underway after the beachfront condo tower, Champlain Towers South, collapsed at about 1.30am this morning in the Miami neighborhood of Surfside. One woman has been confirmed dead and at least eight people were injured
Hundreds of firefighters were seen walking through the wreckage, picking up other survivors and carrying them away. Authorities fear many more people may be dead or remain trapped under the rubble
Rescue teams rescued 35 people from the damaged building and two people, including the young boy, were pulled from the rubble in the early stages of the search operation
Rescue teams are trawling the wreckage for any survivors and have already miraculously pulled a young boy, who was conscious, from rubble
Authorities say the building was 'substantially full' when it collapsed. Of the building's 136 apartments, 55 were destroyed.
The tower, which is located one block away from where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump currently live, has a mix of seasonal and year-round residents. Mayor Burkett said the building keeps a log of guests staying but does not keep track of when owners are in residence.
Crowds of people were gathering at a family reunification center set up nearby as they awaited news on their family and friends.
Authorities have not yet determined what caused the building to collapse but confirmed that renovations had been underway on the roof in recent weeks.
Burkett said it was unlikely that the roof work had anything to do with the collapse, instead describing it as a 'catastrophic failure' of the building.
'It's hard to imagine how this could have happened,' Burkett said. 'Buildings just don't fall down.
'There's no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls the supports out from underneath.'
Burkett suggested that potential causes could be the result of the foundations being washed out or a sinkhole.
The Miami-Dade Police have assumed control of the investigation as to why the building collapsed.
The collapse, which appeared to affect one leg of the L-shaped tower, tore away walls and left a number of homes in the still-standing part of the building exposed in what looked like a giant dollhouse.
Bunk beds, tables and chairs could be seen still left inside the damaged apartments. Air conditioner units were hanging from some parts of the building where wires now dangled.
Photos and video from the scene show the collapse affected half the tower. Piles of rubble and debris surrounded the area just outside the building.
The debris from the collapse coated cars up to two blocks away with a light layer of dust.
Fire rescue personnel conduct a search and rescue with dogs through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South Condo on Thursday
Search and rescue personnel with a K9 unit work in the rubble in search of survivors
Of the building's 136 apartments, 55 were destroyed. The building is located one block away from where Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump currently live
Bunk beds, tables and chairs could be seen still left inside the damaged apartments. Air conditioner units were hanging from some parts of the building where wires now dangled
The collapse left a number of units in the still-standing part of the building exposed with furniture visible inside some apartments
Authorities have not yet determined what caused the building to collapse but confirmed that renovations had been underway on the roof
Of the building's 136 apartments, 55 were destroyed. Authorities have not yet determined what caused the building to collapse but confirmed that renovations had been underway on the roof
Rescue teams are currently using machinery and dogs to help trawl the wreckage for any survivors. Authorities fear many more people may be dead or remain trapped under the rubble
Barry Cohen, 63, said he and his wife were asleep in the building when he first heard what he thought was a crack of lightning.
The couple went onto their balcony, then opened the door to the building's hallway to find 'a pile of rubble and dust and smoke billowing around'.
'I couldn´t walk out past my doorway,' said Cohen, the former vice mayor of Surfside. 'A gaping hole of rubble.'
He and his wife eventually made it to the basement and found rising water there. They returned upstairs, screamed for help and were eventually brought to safety by firefighters using a cherry-picker.
Cohen said he raised concerns years ago about whether nearby construction might be causing damage to the building after seeing cracked pavers on the pool deck.
Jennifer Carr was asleep in a neighboring building when she was awakened by a loud boom and her room shook. She thought it was a thunderstorm but checked the weather app on her phone and saw none. The building´s fire alarms went off, and she and her family went outside and saw the collapse.
'It was devastation,' Carr said. 'People were running and screaming.'
Nicolas Fernandez was waiting early Thursday for word on close family friends who lived in the collapsed section of the building.
'Since it happened, I´ve been calling them nonstop, just trying to ring their cellphones as much as we can to hep the rescue to see if they can hear the cellphones.'
Santo Mejil, 50, told the Miami Herald his wife called him from the building, where she was working as an aide for an elderly woman.
'She said she heard a big explosion. It felt like an earthquake,' Mejil told the newspaper. He said she later called him and said rescuers were bringing her down.
Crowds of people were gathering at a family reunification center set up nearby as they awaited news on their family and friends
Authorities say the building was 'substantially full' when it collapsed. Of the building's 136 apartments, 55 were destroyed. Families are pictured at a family reunification center on Thursday morning
Pictures and videos from the scene suggest a full section of the tower collapsed (pictured), which left huge piles of debris lying at the corner of Collins Avenue
One woman has died and at least nine people are injured, including a firefighter, following the collapse just before 1.30am, according to local media reports. One person is said to be in critical condition. Pictured: The partially collapsed building
There have been dozens of people impacted by the collapse (pictured: the partially collapsed building), according to local media, but authorities have not yet confirmed any details of potential casualties
Witness Kimberly Morales, who lives across the street, told CNN she was woken up by alarms going off and people pounding on her door, as she didn't hear the building collapse. Pictured: A portion of the condo tower crumbled to the ground
A portion of the 12-story condo tower crumbled to the ground during a partial collapse of the apartment block. It is unknown at this time how many people were injured as search-and-rescue effort continues
Southbound traffic is being diverted west on 96th Street and northbound traffic is being diverted at 85th Street and Collins Avenue as authorities continue with the rescue operation (right), Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (left) confirmed
Freelance journalist Joel Franco, who was on the scene, claimed that the fire department had managed to rescue some people from their balconies. Pictured: Emergency personnel working at the scene
One witness, who was staying in the south Florida island city with his family, was in a neighboring building at the time and said the collapse sounded and felt like a tornado or earthquake.
'It was the craziest thing I ever heard in my life,' he told Fox News.
Witnesses claimed to have heard people screaming beneath the rubble during frantic efforts to free them from the wreckage of the building.
One witness told NBC: 'They are able to rescue some people but I heard some screams.'
When the building initially collapsed, more than 80 rescue units were on the scene, including designated teams skilled in retrieving bodies from wreckages.
The sea-view condo development was built in 1981 in the southeast corner of Surfside, on the beach. It had a few two-bedroom units currently on the market, with asking prices of $600,000 to $700,000.
The area is a mix of new and old apartments, houses, condominiums and hotels, with restaurants and stores serving an international combination of residents and tourists.
The community provides a stark contrast from bustle and glitz of South Beach with a slower paced neighborhood feel.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed that more than 80 units (right), including Technical Rescue Teams, were at the scene of the collapse (left)
The building, a twelve-story apartment block called Champlain Towers South (pictured), collapsed in the early hours of this morning.
A view inside one of the apartments at Champlain Towers South
Tags
Who is online
422 visitors
They say there has been a thorough effort to account for all the residents or guests in the building and still 51 people cannot be accounted for.
You can gauge the size of that rubble pile by comparing it to the two rescue workers that can be seen in the photo.
One can only imagine the conspiracy theories that are likely percolating on social media right now.
Forty year old multistory buildings generally don’t fall down under their own weight, so I imagine that something nefarious is afoot.
Hopefully some of those missing are merely out of town and not aware of what happened.
Three of the missing people are a couple from South America and their six year old child. They had come to Florida to be vaccinated for covid and were going to spend one night with friends at this condo building before returning to South America.
The eventual result of building on sand.
The 40 year old building year old was starting to be inspected
The pyramids are still standing. This has nothing to do with sand.
As are the thousands of other multistory buildings along the coastline.
Combined with the lack of depth of the water table it just may. Hell it could be a sink hole that formed under the building being Florida. We shall know soon .........................
Gen Russell Honore was asked for his opinion a little while ago on a tv show. He said "this was not an Act Of God and someone has to be held responsible".
It was not a freak of nature - it was either negligence in the design or construction, or it was intentional destruction. It wasnt "bad luck".
What bedrock formation was it built on?
Limestone and sandy sediments don't make for a sturdy foundation.
After 40 years?
Then they shouldn't have been allowed to build it.
Right now, one theory is that seawater seeped under the building, weakening the foundation.
Another theory I heard was that a pre-stressed concrete wall or floor could have failed.
I have no idea how long it will take them to discover what happened, but i sure hope this causes them to change processes and inspect other buildings in the area (Eastern seaboard?) that have similar construction / timelines / foundations / etc.
As I stated below, it's possible that the reinforced concrete construction was not to proper standard. Contractors can save a lot of money by cutting corners, even with paying off corrupt inspectors.
"The pyramids are still standing. This has nothing to do with sand."
Doesn't it though? Those buildings don't have a foundation to build on per se - so aren't they built on wood planks - or whatever you call them - on top of wood planks, as the foundation?
Yeah, I don't see how one whole section of that building could just 'fall' (someone said it sounded like an explosion) and the rest remain standing.
40 years old is not an old building.
The county requires commercial and multi-family buildings to be recertified every 40 years. The process involves electrical and structural inspections for a report to be filed with the town. It was underway for the condominium building but had not yet been completed, town officials said Thursday.
From the article in comment 8 below
I guess we will see what the investigation reveals.
Florida officials now saying there could be as many as 99 people missing in the building collapse (based on tenant records) , although they dont know how many of those could have been out of the building at the time of the collapse.
Collapsed Miami condo had been sinking into Earth as early as the 1990s, researchers say
Now every building in that part of the world will have to be inspected.
All these buildings are built on former wetlands and landfill. Don't be surprised if this happens again.
Hopefully those 51 people weren’t home. My sympathies to the family of the confirmed fatality.
AP sez the toll is 99 missing.
I guess it’s up to like 159 missing now.
This triggered a sad recollection for me. In the massive 2008 earthquake in China, pinpointed in Sichuan Province (but felt by me 1000 miles away in Zhengzhou) many schools collapsed on the students, thousands died in that earthquake. It was determined that the reinforced concrete used for construction of most schools was deficient, using steel wires which are much cheaper than the required by code steel rods, and to blame for that was the greedy corruption between building inspection officials and contractors. Perhaps in the case of the Florida building, whether or not building standards were followed or not should be investigated.
Morning... hoping like hell for the best, but fearing the reality..
A five million dollar lawsuit has been broughr against the condo corporation, and from what I've learned they've got one hell of a good witness. The condo corp was warned three years ago about this possibility.