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

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This is the link of the collapse (warning - disturbing). It was posted by FOX13 Tampa Bay News so I hope it's ok to link (MSM). It has a slo-mo repeat.


The video above of the collapse (including slo-mo repeat) showed white flashes on various floors of both sections of the buildings. The first time I watched it I felt a huge wave of nausea.

White Flashes: Just as building 1 falls, there are many white lights on the top 4 floors of it or directly adjacent to the building that did not fall. Those white lights could be flashes but there are other lights on that could be people's apartment lights. The video starts with the collapse of the top floors of building 1. There is no released footage of the building standing complete prior to the collapse or the status of the lights/flashes prior to the collapse, so we don't know if it was dark before those lights suddenly appeared as it collapsed, or if those were people's lights that were on and visible through the windows.

After the top floors fall away and turn to dust, there are additional and repeated white flashes on the top floor of the remaining building (viewer's left) that is still standing, and more debris collapses clean off the building. Then, while the first section is collapsing, there is a large white flash behind behind the entire complex at the bottom (from the 88th st side) and behind the plume of orange fire, smoke, and dust. The large white white glow behind the building (88th st side) remains while there is then a white flash on the top of the remaining tower (left) that did not fall, then a white flash on the front, ground floor front left corner of building 2. Then the white glow behind the building goes black. Then there is an additional large white flash from behind the rubble of the first building that pushes through the orange smoke and dust and lifts it from where it started to drift downwards and puffs it up and forward with force, like someone blowing on a massive campfire. That large white flash can be seen flashing through the building as small white squares on the left corner of the top floor and the center of the middle floor (halfway up) of building 2, and then building 2 collapses. Once the first building is down, there are another two flashes in quick succession that appear on the top of the remaining tower that is still standing (left), and a third flash a few seconds later, but that section does not collapse.

I suppose it could be swamp gas, or electrical surges, but the building disintegrated. It appears to have been violently and aggressively destroyed by some powerful combustion forces from the 88th St. side of the building.

It also appears the the section that remains was offset a bit to the south. The part that came down was oceanfront.

ETA tried to add a screen shot of the street view of the building but it's too big. Here's the google link:
Google Maps

Fox News also flew a drone over and it shows how clean the destroyed building was cut away from the remaining part. The north side on 88th was cut off right along what may have been a hallway or stairs, and the southwest offset part is like a freestanding building itself.


''Miami-Dade Rescue Fire said more than 80 technical and rescue teams were on the scene in Surfside, a few miles north of Miami Beach. Firefighters picked through the rubble – piled almost half as high as the part of the building still standing – extricating survivors and carrying them from the wreckage from the Champlain Towers South development.''

"It's less likely than a lightning strike," Burkett told CNN. "It just doesn't happen. You don't see buildings falling down in America."

''Burkett stressed that it was "not an old building. ... There's no reason for this building to go down like that."

Building, area has Argentinian connection
The city of Surfside has long been an enclave of the Argentine-American community after the economic collapse of the 1990s in the South American country. The sight of Steak restaurants and empanadas are nestled in high rise buildings. Sounds of porteño Spanish are more common than Caribbean Spanish in some places. Silvana Juárez, 49, of Argentina, lives near the condo building and said her good friends are missing.

“I have three friends and their little girl that are missing,” Juárez told USA TODAY.
“My daughter lives in the building next door and my daughter heard a loud explosion.”
 
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This is the link of the collapse (warning - disturbing). It was posted by FOX13 Tampa Bay News so I hope it's ok to link (MSM). It has a slo-mo repeat.


The video above of the collapse (including slo-mo repeat) showed white flashes on various floors of both sections of the buildings. The first time I watched it I felt a huge wave of nausea.

White Flashes: Just as building 1 falls, there are many white lights on the top 4 floors of it or directly adjacent to the building that did not fall. Those white lights could be flashes but there are other lights on that could be people's apartment lights. The video starts with the collapse of the top floors of building 1. There is no released footage of the building standing complete prior to the collapse or the status of the lights/flashes prior to the collapse, so we don't know if it was dark before those lights suddenly appeared as it collapsed, or if those were people's lights that were on and visible through the windows.

After the top floors fall away and turn to dust, there are additional and repeated white flashes on the top floor of the remaining building (viewer's left) that is still standing, and more debris collapses clean off the building. Then, while the first section is collapsing, there is a large white flash behind behind the entire complex at the bottom (from the 88th st side) and behind the plume of orange fire, smoke, and dust. The large white white glow behind the building (88th st side) remains while there is then a white flash on the top of the remaining tower (left) that did not fall, then a white flash on the front, ground floor front left corner of building 2. Then the white glow behind the building goes black. Then there is an additional large white flash from behind the rubble of the first building that pushes through the orange smoke and dust and lifts it from where it started to drift downwards and puffs it up and forward with force, like someone blowing on a massive campfire. That large white flash can be seen flashing through the building as small white squares on the left corner of the top floor and the center of the middle floor (halfway up) of building 2, and then building 2 collapses. Once the first building is down, there are another two flashes in quick succession that appear on the top of the remaining tower that is still standing (left), and a third flash a few seconds later, but that section does not collapse.

I suppose it could be swamp gas, or electrical surges, but the building disintegrated. It appears to have been violently and aggressively destroyed by some powerful combustion forces from the 88th St. side of the building.

It also appears the the section that remains was offset a bit to the south. The part that came down was oceanfront.

ETA tried to add a screen shot of the street view of the building but it's too big. Here's the google link:
Google Maps

Fox News also flew a drone over and it shows how clean the destroyed building was cut away from the remaining part. The north side on 88th was cut off right along what may have been a hallway or stairs, and the southwest offset part is like a freestanding building itself.


''Miami-Dade Rescue Fire said more than 80 technical and rescue teams were on the scene in Surfside, a few miles north of Miami Beach. Firefighters picked through the rubble – piled almost half as high as the part of the building still standing – extricating survivors and carrying them from the wreckage from the Champlain Towers South development.''

"It's less likely than a lightning strike," Burkett told CNN. "It just doesn't happen. You don't see buildings falling down in America."

''Burkett stressed that it was "not an old building. ... There's no reason for this building to go down like that."

Building, area has Argentinian connection
The city of Surfside has long been an enclave of the Argentine-American community after the economic collapse of the 1990s in the South American country. The sight of Steak restaurants and empanadas are nestled in high rise buildings. Sounds of porteño Spanish are more common than Caribbean Spanish in some places. Silvana Juárez, 49, of Argentina, lives near the condo building and said her good friends are missing.

“I have three friends and their little girl that are missing,” Juárez told USA TODAY.
“My daughter lives in the building next door and my daughter heard a loud explosion.”
Are you implying it was a bomb? There is no evidence of that.
 
This is the link of the collapse (warning - disturbing). It was posted by FOX13 Tampa Bay News so I hope it's ok to link (MSM). It has a slo-mo repeat.


The video above of the collapse (including slo-mo repeat) showed white flashes on various floors of both sections of the buildings. The first time I watched it I felt a huge wave of nausea.

White Flashes: Just as building 1 falls, there are many white lights on the top 4 floors of it or directly adjacent to the building that did not fall. Those white lights could be flashes but there are other lights on that could be people's apartment lights. The video starts with the collapse of the top floors of building 1. There is no released footage of the building standing complete prior to the collapse or the status of the lights/flashes prior to the collapse, so we don't know if it was dark before those lights suddenly appeared as it collapsed, or if those were people's lights that were on and visible through the windows.

After the top floors fall away and turn to dust, there are additional and repeated white flashes on the top floor of the remaining building (viewer's left) that is still standing, and more debris collapses clean off the building. Then, while the first section is collapsing, there is a large white flash behind behind the entire complex at the bottom (from the 88th st side) and behind the plume of orange fire, smoke, and dust. The large white white glow behind the building (88th st side) remains while there is then a white flash on the top of the remaining tower (left) that did not fall, then a white flash on the front, ground floor front left corner of building 2. Then the white glow behind the building goes black. Then there is an additional large white flash from behind the rubble of the first building that pushes through the orange smoke and dust and lifts it from where it started to drift downwards and puffs it up and forward with force, like someone blowing on a massive campfire. That large white flash can be seen flashing through the building as small white squares on the left corner of the top floor and the center of the middle floor (halfway up) of building 2, and then building 2 collapses. Once the first building is down, there are another two flashes in quick succession that appear on the top of the remaining tower that is still standing (left), and a third flash a few seconds later, but that section does not collapse.

I suppose it could be swamp gas, or electrical surges, but the building disintegrated. It appears to have been violently and aggressively destroyed by some powerful combustion forces from the 88th St. side of the building.

It also appears the the section that remains was offset a bit to the south. The part that came down was oceanfront.

ETA tried to add a screen shot of the street view of the building but it's too big. Here's the google link:
Google Maps

Fox News also flew a drone over and it shows how clean the destroyed building was cut away from the remaining part. The north side on 88th was cut off right along what may have been a hallway or stairs, and the southwest offset part is like a freestanding building itself.


''Miami-Dade Rescue Fire said more than 80 technical and rescue teams were on the scene in Surfside, a few miles north of Miami Beach. Firefighters picked through the rubble – piled almost half as high as the part of the building still standing – extricating survivors and carrying them from the wreckage from the Champlain Towers South development.''

"It's less likely than a lightning strike," Burkett told CNN. "It just doesn't happen. You don't see buildings falling down in America."

''Burkett stressed that it was "not an old building. ... There's no reason for this building to go down like that."

Building, area has Argentinian connection
The city of Surfside has long been an enclave of the Argentine-American community after the economic collapse of the 1990s in the South American country. The sight of Steak restaurants and empanadas are nestled in high rise buildings. Sounds of porteño Spanish are more common than Caribbean Spanish in some places. Silvana Juárez, 49, of Argentina, lives near the condo building and said her good friends are missing.

“I have three friends and their little girl that are missing,” Juárez told USA TODAY.
“My daughter lives in the building next door and my daughter heard a loud explosion.”

What you are suggesting would be a very elaborate set of explosions. To what end? It was not successful bringing down the entire building. Plus, it's been days, if it was a terror attack, some group would have claimed it by now.

Let's follow Occam's razor here. The simplest answer is the answer. What you see as white in the beginning of the video are apartments with lights on. After the collapse begins the lights you are seeing are electrical in nature. And the fires smoldering in the rubble is attributed to the electric fires, ruptured gas lines, as well as combustible household cleaners. These are not at all uncommon to find in a building collapse.

There are 4 types of collapses that took place here. A progressive v collapse brought down the southern part of the middle section, a cantilever collapse took down the northern part of the middle section, a leanto collapse took down the left part of the building and a pancake collapse took down the right side. These all happened due to the foundation failing. Which would go against your theory that this was an explosive of some nefarious type. No engineer is looking at this and saying, yeah, that was a bomb. Especially in a 40 year old building that had documented failing concrete supports. And all of that would sound like an explosion because in a building explosion the bang you hear is the concussive force causing concrete and metal to explode. Same sound if a sudden buckling of concrete.

Tbh and Frank, these old buildings were built in a time when fast and cheap were the preferred method. Now we know, in order to be safe you can't have it fast and cheap. So unfortunately, we will be seeing more and more collapses of this sort because nobody wants to invest the tens of millions of dollars in repairs that are going to be necessary.
 
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This is a screenshot taken from Google maps. This is a section of the building that did not collapse. But you can see here the seams of the concrete failing. You can also see a vertical crack in the concrete going down the length of this building. Cracks like these imply that the building was shifting towards the east. If that's what the outside looks like, I can guarantee you the steel work and concrete on the inside was even worse.
 

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This is a screenshot taken from Google maps. This is a section of the building that did not collapse. But you can see here the seams of the concrete failing. You can also see a vertical crack in the concrete going down the length of this building. Cracks like these imply that the building was shifting towards the east. If that's what the outside looks like, I can guarantee you the steel work and concrete on the inside was even worse.

I don't see any cracks. Can you circle them?
 
Surfside mayor calls for evacuation of collapsed condo’s sister building

“I am going to recommend that we move people out of that building,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said Friday, according to WSVN.

“We’ve got an identical building one block away with people living in it, and in an abundance of caution, I think we need to relocate those folks.”

Surfside mayor calls for evacuation of collapsed condo's sister building

can't believe they already haven't
if I lived there, I would already be gone
 
I can’t get the image of those bunk beds out of my mind. I saw somewhere that a family with two girls was on the list of missing people. I can’t remember where I saw it. Has anyone seen anything like that? My heart is so broken knowing that there are so many children in there.

I saw a crib the other day. Can't link now but the image won't leave my mind.
 
I can’t get the image of those bunk beds out of my mind. I saw somewhere that a family with two girls was on the list of missing people. I can’t remember where I saw it. Has anyone seen anything like that? My heart is so broken knowing that there are so many children in there.
Do you mean the white bunk beds that are visible on the top floor in the part that it still standing? According to a news report linked earlier on this thread, that apartment (penthouse #4) was rented by a woman who is now missing. No children were mentioned.

ETA another source: miami condo collapse some victims identified

She rented Penthouse 4, whose interior was exposed, with bunk beds and an office chair still intact, just inside the broken edge where the rest of the 12-story building crumbled into a pile of debris.

March had been using the second bedroom of the furnished apartment as her office, best friend Rochelle Laufer told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Florida was a new start for the 58-year-old attorney. In the past decade, she’d lost her sister and mother to cancer, her father died a few years later and she and her husband divorced. She had no children.

According to NY Daily News (the entire article is not accessible to me), she is a lawyer who "specializes in representing building owners, contractors and developers who run afoul of city codes and regulations".
 
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This is the link of the collapse (warning - disturbing). It was posted by FOX13 Tampa Bay News so I hope it's ok to link (MSM). It has a slo-mo repeat.


The video above of the collapse (including slo-mo repeat) showed white flashes on various floors of both sections of the buildings. The first time I watched it I felt a huge wave of nausea.

White Flashes: Just as building 1 falls, there are many white lights on the top 4 floors of it or directly adjacent to the building that did not fall. Those white lights could be flashes but there are other lights on that could be people's apartment lights. The video starts with the collapse of the top floors of building 1. There is no released footage of the building standing complete prior to the collapse or the status of the lights/flashes prior to the collapse, so we don't know if it was dark before those lights suddenly appeared as it collapsed, or if those were people's lights that were on and visible through the windows.

After the top floors fall away and turn to dust, there are additional and repeated white flashes on the top floor of the remaining building (viewer's left) that is still standing, and more debris collapses clean off the building. Then, while the first section is collapsing, there is a large white flash behind behind the entire complex at the bottom (from the 88th st side) and behind the plume of orange fire, smoke, and dust. The large white white glow behind the building (88th st side) remains while there is then a white flash on the top of the remaining tower (left) that did not fall, then a white flash on the front, ground floor front left corner of building 2. Then the white glow behind the building goes black. Then there is an additional large white flash from behind the rubble of the first building that pushes through the orange smoke and dust and lifts it from where it started to drift downwards and puffs it up and forward with force, like someone blowing on a massive campfire. That large white flash can be seen flashing through the building as small white squares on the left corner of the top floor and the center of the middle floor (halfway up) of building 2, and then building 2 collapses. Once the first building is down, there are another two flashes in quick succession that appear on the top of the remaining tower that is still standing (left), and a third flash a few seconds later, but that section does not collapse.

I suppose it could be swamp gas, or electrical surges, but the building disintegrated. It appears to have been violently and aggressively destroyed by some powerful combustion forces from the 88th St. side of the building.

It also appears the the section that remains was offset a bit to the south. The part that came down was oceanfront.

ETA tried to add a screen shot of the street view of the building but it's too big. Here's the google link:
Google Maps

Fox News also flew a drone over and it shows how clean the destroyed building was cut away from the remaining part. The north side on 88th was cut off right along what may have been a hallway or stairs, and the southwest offset part is like a freestanding building itself.


''Miami-Dade Rescue Fire said more than 80 technical and rescue teams were on the scene in Surfside, a few miles north of Miami Beach. Firefighters picked through the rubble – piled almost half as high as the part of the building still standing – extricating survivors and carrying them from the wreckage from the Champlain Towers South development.''

"It's less likely than a lightning strike," Burkett told CNN. "It just doesn't happen. You don't see buildings falling down in America."

''Burkett stressed that it was "not an old building. ... There's no reason for this building to go down like that."

Building, area has Argentinian connection
The city of Surfside has long been an enclave of the Argentine-American community after the economic collapse of the 1990s in the South American country. The sight of Steak restaurants and empanadas are nestled in high rise buildings. Sounds of porteño Spanish are more common than Caribbean Spanish in some places. Silvana Juárez, 49, of Argentina, lives near the condo building and said her good friends are missing.

“I have three friends and their little girl that are missing,” Juárez told USA TODAY.
“My daughter lives in the building next door and my daughter heard a loud explosion.”

if this had been caused by a bomb or any sort of explosive device, all the windows in the neighboring buildings would have been blown out. In Oklahoma City, all the glass was gone in every building around the site.

The lights you are seeing are just lights in apartments. When you begin to see flashes, it’s a combination of those apartment lights being obscured by dust and then unobscured... And electrical arcs from live wiring being forcefully snapped in half.

Can you explain your theory on what Argentina has to do with this? I’m confused about your last two paragraphs. Is the implication that this was some sort of Argentinian bombing?

I’m genuinely surprised anyone is considering this was caused by an explosion. All of the evidence is pointing to the structural failure caused by failing support beams in the parking garage.
 
Do you mean the white bunk beds that are visible on the top floor in the part that it still standing? According to a news report linked earlier on this thread, that apartment (penthouse #4) was rented by a woman who is now missing. No children were mentioned.

ETA another source: miami condo collapse some victims identified

She rented Penthouse 4, whose interior was exposed, with bunk beds and an office chair still intact, just inside the broken edge where the rest of the 12-story building crumbled into a pile of debris.

March had been using the second bedroom of the furnished apartment as her office, best friend Rochelle Laufer told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Florida was a new start for the 58-year-old attorney. In the past decade, she’d lost her sister and mother to cancer, her father died a few years later and she and her husband divorced. She had no children.

According to NY Daily News (the entire article is not accessible to me), she is a lawyer who "specializes in representing building owners, contractors and developers who run afoul of city codes and regulations".

RBBM, how spooky. Her job was to protect the very types of people that caused her likely demise. :eek:

Also, having limited family is going to make it very hard to identify her remains. :(
 
I actually thought that the loud noise awoke people in the various units; and they turned on their lights to see what it was. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to escape. Very sad.

JMO.
A resident from apt #611 escaped just before the collapse. She fled her apartment after hearing noises and seeing a large crack appear in a wall. I wonder how much time has elapsed from the first signs until the collapse.

Posted earlier by someone else: Florida survivor recalls escape from collapsing condo
 
I actually thought that the loud noise awoke people in the various units; and they turned on their lights to see what it was. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to escape. Very sad.

JMO.

Yes, I imagine a 12 storey building that has a structural failure impending total collapse would make a lot of noise and a lot of people would have stirred, but sadly only a few seem to have been woken fully enough to really do something about it in the seconds they had :(

that video taken from inside one person's apartment (though thankfully she was away) definitely has noise, building in loudness, while the debris is falling
 
Four more victims have been identified: an elderly couple (from apt #704) and a mother with her adult son (#702), who had muscular dystrophy.

The latest: 8 of 9 victims have been identified from Surfside collapse

All 8 identified victims and 3 survivors found so far lived on floors 7-10 on the northern side of the building that caved in after the southern (pool) side.
 
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LadyL, thank you for the link. The last 2 paragraphs were interesting.
""
In November, 2018, a town official reviewed the document and concluded that the building was in “very good condition,” she said. One telling detail, she said, is that the board members continued to live in the building.

“Would any rational people who read a report and thought … it was a hazard, continue to live there, with their children? It’s not logical,” she said. “And by the way, the vice-president and her two adult sons and their families are missing right now.”"
What is logical for one person may not be logical for another. Personally, just the standing water in the parking garage and the looming assessment of $70,000, would make put my place up for sale and cut my losses.
The assertion "it takes time to get a$12 million dollar line of credit" makes me wonder how long? Wouldn't someone or some entity question what kind of repairs cost $12 million dollars and ask for reports on why the money was needed? Do commercial insurance companies conduct safety inspections of the properties they insure?
The families of the missing are going to be asking a lot more questions than me. (us?)
 
The video is not available in my area, Australia.

Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media

Rescue dog searches rubble for survivors after Miami building collapse

A dog is assisting in the search for survivors and victims of the building collapse in Miami, Florida.Rescue efforts have entered their fifth day as workers stressed survivors could still be found among the rubble, despite no one having been found alive since the structure fell last week.Nine people have been confirmed dead and more than 150 are still missing.
 
The video is not available in my area, Australia.

Yahoo is now a part of Verizon Media

Rescue dog searches rubble for survivors after Miami building collapse

A dog is assisting in the search for survivors and victims of the building collapse in Miami, Florida.Rescue efforts have entered their fifth day as workers stressed survivors could still be found among the rubble, despite no one having been found alive since the structure fell last week.Nine people have been confirmed dead and more than 150 are still missing.

You can see the video here, Tootsie. The poor pup looks really bewildered, as if there is nothing to scent in that area.

Watch: Rescue dog searches rubble for survivors after Miami building collapse
 
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