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

[Inthedetails]

Agenda-Free TV, live coverage now (Friday afternoon)

 

[SuziQ]

Agenda-Free TV, live coverage now (Friday afternoon)

Fire on the 4th floor of remaining structure.

 

[Alethea]

Not sure if this one has been posted yet. If it has, please scroll on by...

U.S.
Video shows standing water underneath Surfside building, long-standing concern of residents before collapse

Absolutely unreal to me that all of those firefighters are in the parking garage under a collapsed building with no guarantee that it doesn’t just collapse on them. First responders are heroes.

 

[crhedBngr]

Absolutely unreal to me that all of those firefighters are in the parking garage under a collapsed building with no guarantee that it doesn’t just collapse on them. First responders are heroes.

They are indeed!

 

[whitelilac]

"Another issue at hand for the Surfside community is one shared with all of Miami Beach: The towns are built on a barrier island. Climate scientists and geologists have long warned that these islands cannot be developed responsibly. They are made of a loose mixture of sand and mud and provide a natural protection for the shoreline.

“These are very dynamic features. We didn’t understand that these islands actually migrate until the 1970s,” said Orrin Pilkey, a professor emeritus of geology at Duke University who has long studied sea-level rise and the over-development of the coast. “As sea level rises, they move back.”

"An analysis of satellite images taken of Miami Beach, which includes the town of Surfside, found that the area had moved slightly each year through the 1990s, according to a study published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management in April 2020. The report noted that these issues can lead to greater flooding and hazards for local communities."

Collapsed Miami condo was built on a barrier island, which scientists say presents risks

 

[Alethea]

Im watching Agenda Free TV and he’s saying rescuers are going into apartments where they reported phone calls. He thinks it could be a technical error but I’m praying people made it over into a safe space.

 

[indicolite22]

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett on the phone with @SenRickScott, discussing whether to evacuate the identical Champlain Tower North a block away. Sounds like they want to give residents the option to leave. @CBS12

https://twitter.com/AndrewLofholm/status/1408467183852785666 (reporter)

 

[Chelly]

The building is owned by the unit owners. One of the jobs of the HOA is to address maintenance of the building. HOAs are commonly administered by a company set up to do just that. My HOA (of not a condo but a regular neighborhood) recently underwent a change in the company administering our community because the previous one was not doing a good job with communication to the residents. If we have a complaint, we don't have to track down the president or other board members; we can contact the administrator and they are supposed to take problems to the appropriate board member. There were multiple companies to choose from, and they don't only administer one HOA.

Thank you @Knitty for explaining. Is suing the HOA, the only legal recourse for unit owners? Thinking in terms of accountability.

 

[CrimeAway]

Video of press conference this afternoon:

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Resident files class-action lawsuit after Florida condo collapse (nbcnews.com)

The purpose of the suit, filed in Miami-Dade County just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, is to "compensate the victims of this unfathomable loss," according to the filing.

A resident of Champlain Towers South, the Florida high-rise condo building that partially collapsed, filed a class-action lawsuit less than 24 hours after nearly half the building was reduced to rubble.

The suit, filed by Manuel Drezner in Miami-Dade County just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, said its purpose is to "compensate the victims of this unfathomable loss."

Part of the 12-story building in Surfside, near Miami Beach, collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Thursday. Of the building's 136 units, 55 in the northeast corridor were gone in a matter of seconds.

As of Friday morning, four people were dead and 11 had been hurt, officials said...

 

[JaxFlaGal]

I'm not a Florida native but we do have property in Florida on the Gulf side in St. Pete. Our building was built in 1973 so I am presuming its already had its 40 year inspection.

I've lived in North Florida most of my life. Not a building expert, but I believe that the 40-year inspection/recertification requirement is not statewide, but unique to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
Some info on it (Broward County): Understanding the Recertification Process - 40-Year Inspections

A very informative article on the history of the area's reinspection requirement is here: After A DEA Building Collapsed In 1974, Engineer Created Recertification Program To Prevent Future Disasters
The article interviews the county engineer who first developed the requirement after a 1974 office building collapse in downtown Miami:
"In 1974, when the federal Drug Enforcement Agency building in downtown Miami collapsed, John Pistorino was early in his engineering career working for the county as a consulting engineer.

The collapse killed seven federal employees and injured 16 people.

Six tons of rubble left behind led Pistorino to conclude that concrete buildings in South Florida can face particular risks. The aggregate rock used in concrete can contain salt which, combined with the humidity and salty ocean air, can corrode reinforcing steel.

“When the reinforcing steel corrodes, it expands and cracks the concrete. It loses all of its structural capacity,” he said.

While collapsing buildings, then and now, are extremely rare, Pistorino came up with Miami-Dade's recertification program used in many cities — including Surfside — and in Broward County. It requires buildings to be inspected at 40 years old — about the age of the DEA building when it fell.

“That's where the 40 came from" said Pistorino, who has been president of Pistorino and Alam Consulting Engineers since 1986."

 

[Warwick1991]

Thank you @Knitty for explaining. Is suing the HOA, the only legal recourse for unit owners? Thinking in terms of accountability.

I also live in a Florida condominium…. A COA or CA is a condominium owners association/condominium association and a HOA is a home owners association. In FL, a HOA is usually a community of individual homes, and a COA is usually a building or group of buildings where owners own apartments within the buildings. In the case of Champlain Towers, this would be a COA, a resident-owned building, with an elected COA board of directors. They would have hired a management company, the attorney (Direktor) and the engineers who did the 40-year Miami-Dade inspection. I assume some of the board members may be deceased…. COAs must carry insurance, but I’d assume the policy would be exhausted by the scale of the claims. The directors and officers policy probably couldn’t cover the claims, even if the board was deemed negligent. There would - or should - be insurance on the building itself, however. That would either be a source of reconstruction funds or a payout to the individual condominium owners.

As far as responsibility is concerned, it appears that this COA board might have been unwilling to address problems from water intrusion, based on the lawsuit on ongoing water intrusion. Florida Surfside Building Was Subject of 2015 Lawsuit Alleging Failure to Maintain Wall

Although the collapse, IMO, is likely to be foundation-related, water intrusion might have weakened the concrete at slab edges, and been a major contributor to the collapse.

In Florida, the statute of limitations for design and construction defects is 10 years, a deadline long passed for a building built in 1981.

If, however, the pile driving operations for the new building nearby was a contributing factor to the collapse, there might be liability from those involved in that project.

It would be my guess that the owners might have limited recourse - or a very long wait - for a lawsuit, and their own individual condominium insurance policies might be the largest amount of compensation they can get in the short term.

The causes of the collapse will pinpoint potential liability.

 

[Warwick1991]

I've lived in North Florida most of my life. Not a building expert, but I believe that the 40-year inspection/recertification requirement is not statewide, but unique to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.
Some info on it (Broward County): Understanding the Recertification Process - 40-Year Inspections

A very informative article on the history of the area's reinspection requirement is here: After A DEA Building Collapsed In 1974, Engineer Created Recertification Program To Prevent Future Disasters
The article interviews the county engineer who first developed the requirement after a 1974 office building collapse in downtown Miami:
"In 1974, when the federal Drug Enforcement Agency building in downtown Miami collapsed, John Pistorino was early in his engineering career working for the county as a consulting engineer.

The collapse killed seven federal employees and injured 16 people.

Six tons of rubble left behind led Pistorino to conclude that concrete buildings in South Florida can face particular risks. The aggregate rock used in concrete can contain salt which, combined with the humidity and salty ocean air, can corrode reinforcing steel.

“When the reinforcing steel corrodes, it expands and cracks the concrete. It loses all of its structural capacity,” he said.

While collapsing buildings, then and now, are extremely rare, Pistorino came up with Miami-Dade's recertification program used in many cities — including Surfside — and in Broward County. It requires buildings to be inspected at 40 years old — about the age of the DEA building when it fell.

“That's where the 40 came from" said Pistorino, who has been president of Pistorino and Alam Consulting Engineers since 1986."

Yes, you’re correct - the 40 year inspection is a Miami-Dade and Broward County requirement and does not apply to other parts of Florida.

 

[indicolite22]

Expert says 'concrete cancer' might have caused Champlain Tower partial collapse

A professional engineer and concrete repair specialist said he believes "concrete cancer," a process that happens when steel rods in building structures rust and expand, might have caused the deadly partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condo in Florida on Thursday.

 

[Warwick1991]

Expert says 'concrete cancer' might have caused Champlain Tower partial collapse

A professional engineer and concrete repair specialist said he believes "concrete cancer," a process that happens when steel rods in building structures rust and expand, might have caused the deadly partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condo in Florida on Thursday.

This condition is very common on oceanfront concrete structures in Florida, although it is not usually called “concrete cancer.” It is especially common on concrete balconies exposed to the weather, but it can also occur at exterior columns and other exposed areas. Usually, though, this kind of damage is visible. The rusting rebars (steel reinforcing rods) causes the concrete to spall (flake off) and crack. There are also conditions within the concrete itself, caused by the mix used during construction, that can also cause concrete to lose its strength.

 

[sds71]

This is the mother of the boy that was rescued.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office has publicly identified the first victim in the partial collapse of a condo tower in Surfside, Fla.

Stacie Fang, 54,

Miami-Dade Authorities Publicly Identify 1st Victim Of The Condo Tower Collapse

 

[SeattleStew]

ABC News Live Video

Live coverage. It looks like they have a couple spots they are really checking, with SAR working hard to remove rubble.

Edited: The helicopter just left, darn it.

 

[margarita25]

 

[margarita25]

 

[PayrollNerd]

SBM. I think one of the clues is in the middle section collapsing first. Was foundation weakened in that part due to water leakage in the basement garage? I'm not sure if hurricane damage would be a big factor.

Maybe not a huge contributing factor but hurricanes do bring in the surge. That influx of salt from the sea gets in and doesn’t come back out. The wind will blow so strong that sand will blow in at the edges of windows and doors. It all builds up over time and eats away at the structure. The ground is limestone which seawater seeps thru into the foundation. I don’t know that there is any building solution that can overcome that.

I do hope this is a wake up call to developers. So unbelievably tragic.