Three years before a residential tower collapsed in the Florida city of Surfside, an engineer warned that part of the building had suffered “major structural damage”, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing the engineer’s findings, the newspaper said a 2018 report noted “abundant” cracks and collapses in underground parking garages and the need for repairs aimed at “maintaining structural integrity” of the building. was emphasized.
“Although some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely manner,” engineer Frank Morabito was quoted as writing about the damage near the base of the 40-year-old building.
He reportedly did not warn otherwise that the building could collapse.
A lawyer representing the building’s tenants’ union said that repairs on the building were about to begin after plans were drawn up in the past one year. Lawyer, Kenneth S. The director told the newspaper that if the building’s residents became aware that the building was collapsing and that corrosion was a major risk, planned repairs would be approached differently.
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“It is sad to see these documents as the condo board was clearly made aware that there are some issues,” said Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer. “And from the documents it looks like the issues were not addressed.”
In this photo provided by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, search and rescue personnel search for survivors through debris at the Champlain Towers South Condo on June 25, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. (Miami-Dade Fire Rescue via AP)
Theories abound when the Times report came as the condominium tower on the beach collapsed without warning.
The Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, which partially went down, was in the middle of its 40-year recertification process, which requires detailed structural and electrical inspections.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said in an interview Friday that he was not sure the inspection was complete, but it could contain important clues to the deadly disaster.
“It should have been a very straightforward thing,” Burkett said. “Buildings don’t just fall down in America. there is a reason. We have to find out what is causing that.”
The collapse of the 12-story tower left at least four people dead, with 159 missing as of Friday and many questions how this could happen – and whether other similar buildings are in danger.
Surfside Town Clerk Sandra McCready said in an email that details of the Champlain Towers re-certification inspection will be made public once it is complete. Morabito, who was involved in the building’s recertification process, did not respond to telephone messages and emails requesting comment on Friday.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials stand outside a 12-story beachfront condo building that partially collapsed on June 25, 2021 in the Surfside area of Miami. (AP Photo/Lynn Sladkie)
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniela Levin Cava said at a news conference Friday that she saw no evidence of a sinkhole — much more common in other parts of Florida — or some perpetrator, such as a bomb.
“I can tell you that at this point in time, they haven’t found any evidence of foul play,” she said.
In addition, more attention is paid to ocean water, which is increasing in South Florida and elsewhere because of climate change. Last year, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a measure into law that would require developers to complete studies of sea level rise before starting publicly funded projects.
Like everyone else, the governor wants answers about the reasons for the collapse as soon as possible.
“We need a definitive answer to how this might have happened,” DeSantis told a news conference. “It’s a really unique kind of tragedy; in the middle of the night, half the building collapses just like that.”
Meanwhile, the land on which the Champlain Towers sit is slowly sinking, according to a study published last year by an environmental professor at Florida International University.
But Professor Semyon Vadovinsky cautioned against blaming the caves for the collapse. The study used satellite data collected between 1993 and 1999 to study land sinks in Norfolk, Virginia and Miami Beach.
In a video interview released by the university, Wdowinski said his study found several examples of Earth sinking, some of which are causing cracks in buildings – which he called “quite common” in Florida.
“In most cases, these buildings just move,” he said, “in the case of surfsides there have been no catastrophic collapses, which was very unfortunate.”
Another theory is that the ubiquitous saltwater in the region, which is subject to flooding during the so-called King Tide events, infiltrates concrete supports, corrodes the steel-reinforcing rebar inside and weakens the concrete. is.
Abi Agheyere, an engineering researcher at Drexel University, said determining whether there was such a fall could be a key to the collapse.
“Did a column fail on its own? This column has been carrying this load for 40 years, why would it fail now? Said Agheyere, adding that it’s rare for rebar to be damaged without anyone noticing “You’ve gotta have concrete popping out, falling.”
Others have cited frequent flooding in the building’s lower parking garage, including the potential for water seeping under the porous limestone rock on which Barrier Island sits that includes Surfside and Miami Beach.
Surfside officials say roofing work was underway on the now-collapsed tower and have reduced the possibility that work was a cause. Barry Cohen, a lawyer who escaped the crippled Champlain Towers building with his wife, said the roof work may have been part of a “perfect storm” of reasons that combined to bring the structure down.
“They were doing a new roof. And I think, throughout the day, the building was faster and faster and faster. They’ve been doing it for over a month,” Cohen said.
A bed hangs from a partially collapsed building on June 24, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. (AP Photo / Wilfredo Lee)
Another issue cited by some is construction in a nearby building that could have created vibrations that weakened the Champlain Towers. Cohen said he had previously raised concerns that the work was possibly causing broken pavers on the pool deck.
The collapse is already attracting lawsuits, including a lawsuit filed by attorney Brad Sohn against the condo’s homeowners association an hour after the collapse seeking damages from negligence and other causes for all of the tower’s residents.
The association, the lawsuit argues, “could have prevented the collapse of Champlain Towers South through the practice of simple care, safety measures, and oversight.”