FL- 12 Story Condo Partial Building Collapse, many still unaccounted for, Miami, 24 June 2021 #2

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As of right now there have been 60 people recovered and 35 have been publicly identified. That leaves 25 that have not been released.

There are bunch of people listed in the Miami Herald that have uncommon last names that googling lead me to the Chabad community (also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch[1] (Hebrew: חב"ד‎), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty). Of those that have been named the Ainsworth were part of that community.

I have a list of around 21 that seem to be from that community and I wander if they are looking for next of kin or are not wanting to release based on religious beliefs.

ETA: I have a website for Chabad (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5175000/jewish/Prayers-for-the-Missing.htm) asking for prayers for a listing of people missing. The website also has individual websites at the bottom.
 
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
July 8, 20213:58 PM ET
Nine months before a massive section of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., came showering down an engineering firm called Morabito Consultants found "severely deteriorated" concrete throughout the building, including in load-bearing structures known as corbels.

According to a document acquired by NPR from an anonymous source, the company's probe, conducted between June and October 2020, found problems that appeared even more grave than those identified in an earlier 2018 study of the condo conducted by the same company.

The Maryland-based firm, hired by the condo association's board, is widely respected in the construction industry, in part for helping saved another Florida condominium from collapse a decade earlier.
[...]
NPR reported previously Morabito Consultants produced a troubling report in 2018 that was shared with Surfside town officials.

The later document shows the firm returned in 2020 to conduct a far more extensive inspection, using a technique known as "exploratory demolition" at five sites throughout the structure.

Engineers found evidence part of the Surfside building's load-bearing foundation might be compromised.

"The areas of deteriorated concrete appeared to penetrate deep into wall/corbel construction," the firm said in a memo sent to the condo board in October 2020, included in minutes of the association's monthly meeting.
[...]
Documents acquired by NPR also suggest some in the condo's leadership were aware of the gravity of building's problems.

The October 2020 board minutes include an acknowledgment that some of the needed repair work focused on issues related to "life/health/safety."

"The main expenses by far are related to items that are not cosmetic or even seen: concrete, roof, generator room, fire wall," a November 2020 PowerPoint presentation from the condo's building manager stated.
[...]
 
If a 2008 Florida law that required condos to plan for repairs had still been in place, "this never would have happened," said the legislator who sponsored the law:


If the owners would have had a reserve study, if the board was proactive and had funded its reserves, this never would have happened," said Julio Robaina, a former Republican state legislator.

Robaina sponsored a 2008 law requiring condo associations to hire engineers or architects to submit reports every five years about how much it would cost to keep up with repairs.

The law lasted just two years before it was repealed in 2010, after Robaina left office. Robaina blamed pushback from real estate lawyers and property managers, who he said claimed that the law was too burdensome for condo owners. The legislator who sponsored the repeal, former state Rep. Gary Aubuchon, a Republican real estate broker and homebuilder, did not reply to messages seeking comment.

House Bill 995 (2008) - The Florida Senate

Repealed Florida law would have required faster repairs at collapsed tower, experts say
 
BrownRice said:
Wow. That video shows what a mess the garage is. There’s puddles of water and the ceiling is cracked and peeling.
Click to expand...

The condition of the ceiling (according to a couple of painters I know) seems to indicate long term water/damp exposure. And nothing had been done to dry and seal the waterproofing work.

If ongoing, this moisture would penetrate into the surface of the structure - as its protective coating was failing. Which, in turn, would keep the waterproofing paint cracking and peeling - because paint cannot adhere properly to a damp surface/structure.

Presumably, a damp structure means a weaker structure (my thought).
 
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SeesSeas said:
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
July 8, 20213:58 PM ET
Nine months before a massive section of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., came showering down an engineering firm called Morabito Consultants found "severely deteriorated" concrete throughout the building, including in load-bearing structures known as corbels.

According to a document acquired by NPR from an anonymous source, the company's probe, conducted between June and October 2020, found problems that appeared even more grave than those identified in an earlier 2018 study of the condo conducted by the same company.

The Maryland-based firm, hired by the condo association's board, is widely respected in the construction industry, in part for helping saved another Florida condominium from collapse a decade earlier.
[...]
NPR reported previously Morabito Consultants produced a troubling report in 2018 that was shared with Surfside town officials.

The later document shows the firm returned in 2020 to conduct a far more extensive inspection, using a technique known as "exploratory demolition" at five sites throughout the structure.

Engineers found evidence part of the Surfside building's load-bearing foundation might be compromised.

"The areas of deteriorated concrete appeared to penetrate deep into wall/corbel construction," the firm said in a memo sent to the condo board in October 2020, included in minutes of the association's monthly meeting.
[...]
Documents acquired by NPR also suggest some in the condo's leadership were aware of the gravity of building's problems.

The October 2020 board minutes include an acknowledgment that some of the needed repair work focused on issues related to "life/health/safety."

"The main expenses by far are related to items that are not cosmetic or even seen: concrete, roof, generator room, fire wall," a November 2020 PowerPoint presentation from the condo's building manager stated.
[...]
Click to expand...

I doubt that Morabito Consultants just ambled over in June of 2020 to do another review without any input from the condo board. They would have been paid for that new consult.

It appears to me that the finger pointing has begun where no officials in Surfside and no condo board officials are to blame, just MC who told them in 2018 that the situation was dire.

RP, the MIA Surfside inspector had reviewed the 2018 MC report and said the condo 'seemed to be in very good shape'.

Collapse Wasn’t First for Inspector Who Said Tower Seemed in ‘Good Shape’

It appears that RP's work is being reviewed by Doral's vice mayor. RP left his position in Surfside in November, the same month MC provided the second report to the condo officials. Coincidence? MOO.

Doral vice mayor wants in-depth review of Prieto’s work over link to Surfside tragedy
 
SeesSeas said:
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
Officials Not Notified Of 'Severe' Deterioration Before Surfside Condo Collapse
>snipped for following question<
"Documents acquired by NPR also suggest some in the condo's leadership were aware of the gravity of building's problems."
Click to expand...
NPR has been getting a lot of anonymous info. I think Surfside, in then interest of total transparency, will turn over all the information available. Sometimes just a couple of words can change how one sees the situation.
" Records released by Surfside show that a member of the condo board, Mara Chouela, sent the engineer’s report to Prieto two days before the meeting, asked Prieto to attend the meeting and met with Prieto in his office to discuss the matter beforehand."
What? Before the info was shared with the other residents? Maybe locals can tell us if there is a "sign in process" to enter the building and speak with an inspector or was it documented in some other form? Appt only? etc...
(There was no paywall when I originally accessed this article...but looks as if it might be asking for one now.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252443048.html
 
IQuestion said:
NPR has been getting a lot of anonymous info. I think Surfside, in then interest of total transparency, will turn over all the information available. Sometimes just a couple of words can change how one sees the situation.
" Records released by Surfside show that a member of the condo board, Mara Chouela, sent the engineer’s report to Prieto two days before the meeting, asked Prieto to attend the meeting and met with Prieto in his office to discuss the matter beforehand."
What? Before the info was shared with the other residents? Maybe locals can tell us if there is a "sign in process" to enter the building and speak with an inspector or was it documented in some other form? Appt only? etc...
(There was no paywall when I originally accessed this article...but looks as if it might be asking for one now.)
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252443048.html
Click to expand...

I am wondering if MC met with RP to “go over” the engineering report and to ask him to assure residents that everything was fine. Their emails didn’t sit right with me from the start. Imo he probably never replied to most of her emails bc he didn’t want a paper trail. Which is how he (thought he could) claim he never received the report. Jmo
 
just after dawn on that morning that now feels like forever ago, Annette Guara Hurst hurried to her computer. A high-rise condo building had collapsed in a Surfside, Fla., neighborhood familiar to her, and she needed to see the file where she keeps her family’s addresses. She scanned the list, looking for her youngest brother, praying that her gut was wrong.

But there it was: 8777 Collins Avenue, the same location of the oceanfront building that had buckled and fallen in the middle of night.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” were the only words Ms. Hurst could muster.

Marcus Joseph Guara, 52, the youngest of the three siblings, lived on the eighth floor, in Unit 802. So did her sister-in-law, Anaely Rodriguez, 42. And her 11-year-old and 4-year-old nieces, Lucia and Emma. In that moment, Ms. Hurst had the devastating realization that her brother — and his family — might be gone…

There was the Cattarrosi family in Unit 501, which included Graciela, a photographer, her daughter S. 7, her parents, Graciela and Gino, and her sister, Andrea, who was visiting from their home country of Argentina.

There was the Velasquez family in Unit 304, which included Angela, 60, who owned a men’s boutique, and her husband, Julio, 67. Their daughter, Theresa, was visiting from Los Angeles.

On the same floor, down the hall in Unit 311, were the Patels: Vishal, 42, his 38-year-old wife, Bhavna, their 1-year-old daughter, Aishani. Relatives have said Ms. Patel was four months pregnant.

And on the seventh floor, in Units 702 and 712, the Kleimans, who had lived in the building for many years. Four members of the family, Nancy Kress Levin, her two sons, Frank and Jay Kleiman, and Frank’s wife, Ana Ortiz, were memorialized on Thursday at a Hollywood, Fla., synagogue.

In the early hours after the collapse, a stream of relatives, shellshocked, bewildered and confused — buildings do not just crumble, they said to one another, so how could this have happened — gathered near the ruins, where half the building was still standing.

Entire Families Were Lost in the Surfside Collapse. Here Is One of Their Stories.
 
A 2020 report found Surfside condo lacked funds for necessary repairs. One expert called it a 'wake-up call'

(CNN)An independent budget review warned the Champlain Towers South condo association that its financial reserves were critically underfunded in the face of urgently needed structural repairs a little over a year before the building collapsed, a document obtained by CNN shows.


The condo association only had 6.9% of the recommended level of money to complete repair and replacement projects and stay financially secure, according to a March 2020 report from Association Reserves, a company that analyzes housing association finances.

The report said that various components of the Surfside, Florida, building had zero years of "remaining useful life."

Report found Surfside condo association was deeply underfunded as repair bills piled up - CNN

(doesn't say much for the management/board. I'd be livid if my condo was accessed at $95K to repair. HOA should have been more financially on top of this also, jmo)
 
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In the first hours after the collapse of Champlain Towers South, Stacie Fang and her teenage son were among the few people pulled alive from the rubble in dramatic rescue.

Though her son survived, Fang would later die of her injuries. Her family has now filed a lawsuit against the building’s condo association — one of the latest in over a dozen filed against the association since the 12-story Surfside condo collapsed suddenly on June 24, killing at least 64 people and leaving dozens still missing…
The two, who lived in a unit on the 10th floor, had been awakened by the rumbling in the building. According to the lawsuit filed on Thursday, “the two sat side by side in his room when their entire condo unit collapsed.”

“They free-fell to what they thought was certain death. Stacie and Jonah landed several floors below and miraculously were still alive. First responders arrived at the scene and used Air Jacks to remove Jonah from the carnage. Jonah lived, but with devastating injuries,” the lawsuit said…
The complaint cites the now-infamous 2018 engineers report, commissioned by the condo board, that chronicled “major and widespread structural damage” in the nearly four-decades old building. The condo association “knew that the building was structurally unsound, unsafe, and at grave risk of collapse,” according to the lawsuit by the Miami firm Goldberg & Rosen.

Jonah suffered “pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, mental anguish, loss of capacity for the enjoyment of life, expenses of hospitalization, medical and nursing care treatment [and] aggravation or acceleration of pre-existing injury,” the suit said…

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/lo...ami-beach/article252668233.html#storylink=cpy
 
Hope32 said:
As of right now there have been 60 people recovered and 35 have been publicly identified. That leaves 25 that have not been released.

There are bunch of people listed in the Miami Herald that have uncommon last names that googling lead me to the Chabad community (also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch[1] (Hebrew: חב"ד‎), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty). Of those that have been named the Ainsworth were part of that community.

I have a list of around 21 that seem to be from that community and I wander if they are looking for next of kin or are not wanting to release based on religious beliefs.

ETA: I have a website for Chabad (https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5175000/jewish/Prayers-for-the-Missing.htm) asking for prayers for a listing of people missing. The website also has individual websites at the bottom.
Click to expand...
One of the missing, Esther Bat Leah Linda (Estelle Hedaya), lived in unit #604 (according to the NYT graphic).
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5175889/jewish/Missing-in-Surfside-Estelle-Hedaya.htm

ETA: here are others: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5173656/jewish/Profiles-of-Those-Still-Missing.htm
Only the first two (Moises Rodan and Andrés Levine) are not mentioned in the NYT graphic.

Acording to the article below, Moises Rodan lived in apt #403.
Gainesville Fire Rescue team helps with efforts in the Surfside Condo collapse - The Independent Florida Alligator

Another couple missing, but not included in the graphic: Maria & Mihai Radulescu from unit #404.
Faces of the missing: Officials still searching for 156 people three days after Miami condo collapse | Daily Mail Online
 
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indicolite22 said:
One of the missing, Esther Bat Leah Linda (Estelle Hedaya), lived in unit #604 (according to the NYT graphic).
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5175889/jewish/Missing-in-Surfside-Estelle-Hedaya.htm

ETA: here are others: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/5173656/jewish/Profiles-of-Those-Still-Missing.htm
Only the first two (Moses Rodan and Andrés Levine) are not mentioned in the NYT graphic.
Click to expand...

Thank you! It's confusing at times because I noted that some of them are registered as their American name, but are referred to in other places as their Jewish name. Like Harry Rosenberg is more likely talked about as his Chaim Rosenberg his Jewish name on someplace.

Thanks for the Estelle's Jewish name I didn't catch that. I have been trying to go through them and put it next to their Americanized name.
 
sds71 said:
(AP) -- Miami-Dade mayor: 8 more bodies recovered from site of collapsed Florida condo building, bringing death toll to 54.

@fox_sheldon

Collapse will be investigated by a Grand Jury, per Miami-Dade State Attorney
Click to expand...

"However, the results of their efforts will be presented and released at the end of their term with the issuance of their Grand Jury Report."

It sounds as if the State Attorney expects (hopes?) that the grand jury investigation will be concluded within 5-6 months. Seeing that a Florida grand jury usually sits for a 5-6 month term.

The Grand Jury – The Florida Bar
 
Hope32 said:
Thank you! It's confusing at times because I noted that some of them are registered as their American name, but are referred to in other places as their Jewish name. Like Harry Rosenberg is more likely talked about as his Chaim Rosenberg his Jewish name on someplace.

Thanks for the Estelle's Jewish name I didn't catch that. I have been trying to go through them and put it next to their Americanized name.
Click to expand...
Lois Marcus is Linda March. Her fb page is in her Jewish name.
More names here: Jewish Florida (news and media website)
It's easier to match names from the alphabetical list, because all versions of names are included.
 
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