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Building Collapse in Surfside, Miami-Dade County

More food for thought by surviving eye-witness.

The initial failure was under Unit 111. Gabriel Nir, Unit 111's testimony:

When part of a beachfront condominium building collapsed in Surfside, Gabriel Nir and his family escaped what would have been certain death.
"The first collapse happened, and me and my mom and sister went out," Nir told NBC 6 just hours after Champlain Towers South partially collapsed Thursday morning. "We see the collapse happening on the poolside and I saw a bunch of cars going inside the car garage, so I panicked, my mom panicked, everyone panicked."
Nir's first-floor apartment, unit #111, was above a planter and underground garage entrance ramp that engineers years earlier singled out as the most serious flaw in the building.
Proximity to that apparent failure point likely saved his and others’ lives.
"It was at that moment I saw the ground shaking. I felt something was happening," Nir said. "At that time, I had to run out. I told my mom, my sister, 'everyone, start running,' and so that happened. Everything started, out of nowhere, like cement, dust, sand coming out."
The first signs of collapse minutes later, appearing right at this unit. Nir estimates perhaps two minutes after he reacted to the thunderclap of a beam or column likely falling beneath his unit.
While that may sound like a delayed collapse to a layman, engineer Jason Borden says it’s an instant in engineering terms.
"It sounded like an immediate or spontaneous failure, which is unusual in a modern structure which is built with ductility, durability and redundancy in mind," Borden said. "So the fact that it failed as abruptly, as immediately as it did leads us to believe there had to be more than one thing going on there."
The time for warning and escape are built into designs, but there wasn’t much warning here.
"A freak accident, if you will, once in a lifetime for sure. I think possibly it was a collective of things, deterioration in the structure," said Yaniv Levi of Coast to Coast General Contractors. "It's very unfortunate and this is the first time I’ve ever seen this in my industry, ever."
 
The Washington Post reported that Stratton was on her fourth-floor balcony when she felt a tremor and saw the pool deck cave in


A woman missing in the deadly Florida condo building collapse called her husband as the tragedy unfolded — and said she saw a sinkhole where the pool used to be before the line went dead, according to a new report.


"It was 1:30 a.m., I’ll never, never forget that," Mike Stratton, husband of Cassie Stratton, 40, told the Miami Herald.
 
By focusing on the technical cause of the collapse I suggest that we are missing the bigger picture.

Yes there was deterioration but the ultimate cause of the collapse was that the building management/owners, even after being told that there were problems, failed to do anything to address the problems .

Stupidity is a fatal disease.
 
Mark K said:
By focusing on the technical cause of the collapse I suggest that we are missing the bigger picture.

Yes there was deterioration but the ultimate cause of the collapse was that the building management/owners, even after being told that there were problems, failed to do anything to address the problems .

Stupidity is a fatal disease.
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I could not agree more. Would they have made the repairs sooner if they were not under a 40 year recertification which was coming up in 3 years? Part of me thinks they would have ignored it and the other part thinks they delayed to buy time since they technically did not have to do anything until the 40 year cert was due. They were already behind that schedule anyway.
 
Well

There may have been a slight money issue.

One reason I am not into being part of a HOA, or condo type setting.

Each owner has to pay a portion, normally, and they may not have the money.


Champlain Towers South. Property owners were preparing to contribute their part in more than $9 million in projects.

I keep hearing different total units, from 136 up.

9 million dollars divided by 136…. Do the math.

Some people may not have the money
 
cda said:
Well

There may have been a slight money issue.

One reason I am not into being part of a HOA, or condo type setting.

Each owner has to pay a portion, normally, and they may not have the money.


Champlain Towers South. Property owners were preparing to contribute their part in more than $9 million in projects.

I keep hearing different total units, from 136 up.

9 million dollars divided by 136…. Do the math.

Some people may not have the money
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If the foundation is rotten I fail to understand how that could be repaired without starting over.
 
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Sifu said:
I remember a building in South Korea that suffered a punch-through collapse. The cause of that one is pretty easy to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse
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Interesting read. The owner/builder modified the design, and fired the contractors who refused to build it his way. When cracks started appearing he refused to close the store because he wanted the revenue from the shoppers … but he and his executives did evacuate.
 
Just because there are foundation issues, and there is no proof that they were the cause at the towers, you do not need to tear the building down. This is why you need engineers.

We will need to balance the heightened concern with the real risk. Why are people only concerned with condominiums? Why not rental properties? Why not office buildings? Why not tear down all buildings over 40 years old?

Yes there are issues but we should not respond in a hysterical manner.
 
Mark K said:
Why not rental properties? Why not office buildings?
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Theoretically, rents reflect the cost of operating the buildings. When a tenant leaves the new tenant pays the higher rent. Also, commercial building usually have a CAM clause, and the building manager is not shy about effecting repairs to preserve the owners asset. At least for commercial buildings that stay in desirable condition.
 
ThIMG_20210701_120702898.jpg
IMG_20210701_120818266.jpgIMG_20210701_120854614.jpg
I walked by this building at lunch. It is two years old, a 4 over 2 podium. These cracks with obvious water intrusion are every 8', some over control joints, some not. The exposed rebar occurs about every 4'. This area is a cantilevered walkway on the podium level outside the parking garage. What will this look like after 40 years?
 
Mark K said:
Just because there are foundation issues, and there is no proof that they were the cause at the towers, you do not need to tear the building down. This is why you need engineers.

We will need to balance the heightened concern with the real risk. Why are people only concerned with condominiums? Why not rental properties? Why not office buildings? Why not tear down all buildings over 40 years old?

Yes there are issues but we should not respond in a hysterical manner.
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I think it is obvious that engineers will be the ones to make the call when a building is structurally unsound unless it is already obvious such as a partial collapse and then engineers will be needed to determine if a building can be shored up and then repaired or needs to be razed. I have had this situation multiple times and each time I called out an engineering firm for an evaluation and guidance as I am not an expert.

The 40 year recertification in Miami and Broward Counties are for all buildings other than single family and duplexes, townhouses, etc that are above a certain square footage regardless of the number of stories. This would include office buildings, and much much more.
 
From some of your posted photos, I'm not so sure there should be humans staging where they are under other areas of the condo. If there was a possibility of movement, additional areas may need secured? I understand you have to get in there and move material, but without knowing the reason for the collapse, caution should prevail in some areas I would think.
 
Pcinspector1 said:
From some of your posted photos, I'm not so sure there should be humans staging where they are under other areas of the condo. If there was a possibility of movement, additional areas may need secured? I understand you have to get in there and move material, but without knowing the reason for the collapse, caution should prevail in some areas I would think.
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Just heard this morning that they suspended all search and rescue operations because of concern that there may be additional collapse.
 
Joe.B said:
Just heard this morning that they suspended all search and rescue operations because of concern that there may be additional collapse.
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Yes, they quit recovery efforts for about 15 hours after they discovered that 1 of the columns that have not yet collapsed and shifted between 6 and 12 inches. Work resumed this afternoon however.
 
What does this say for the future of all the super highrises under construction and the switch to concrete vs steel.
Remember the Tower of Babel? There are material limits. Hammarabi said if it fails " you know the rest"
 
So there was another building official, after the last one that moved on,,,

Who was on the roof before the collapse.
 
The latest is that CDI is going to demolish is still standing part of the building as soon as possible. Possibly as soon as Sunday morning.
 
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