There is now a video of the collapse of the Champlain Towers South, captured by a security camera. It takes less than 15 seconds, the middle block of the house in the beach town of Surfside near Miami looks like a much too dry sand castle on the beach that is being swept away by the wind, shortly afterwards it looks as if the earth is opening up and swallowing the eastern part . It is not easy to watch the video, especially since it is now known that there were probably more than 150 people in the twelve-story skyscraper at the time of the collapse and that most of them are still missing. One thing is currently certain: one person has died and more than a dozen were injured; 53 people were able to save themselves, 99 are missing.
“We’re preparing for bad news,” said Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, which means that you expect the worst on the island off Miami, which is best known for buildings like this one at the intersection of 88th Street and Collins Avenue: luxury -Apartments with balcony, ocean view, pool. Some units have sold for more than a million dollars this year. The Champlain Towers South were far less luxurious, however.
A loud bang in the middle of the night
At 1.30 a.m. on Thursday night, the residents were roused from their sleep, everyone who described the moment reported a loud bang. “I thought it was a bad thunderstorm or an earthquake,” Alfredo Lopez told the Miami Herald. He lives in the southwestern part of the wing and heard a second bang – which is why many initially thought of a lightning strike followed by thunder. “When I opened the door, I just thought: There is no building anymore,” said Raysa Rodriguez New York Times. She escaped from the ninth floor across the balcony to a fire escape; she has lived in the building for 20 years and expresses what so many fear now: “I don’t think you can find the people any more.”
The rescue workers have great difficulty entering the site because debris keeps slipping off.
(Photo: Chandan Khanna / AFP)
They have something called it Family Reunification Center in which relatives can search for signs of life of the missing person. “So far we have really done what is humanly possible,” said Luz Marina Pena, for example Herald. Her 77-year-old aunt Marina Azen was in one of the 45 residential units that were affected by the collapse: “Unfortunately, there is hardly any news.” This is because the rescue workers have great difficulty entering the premises. It looks like a war, they say, rubble and ashes lie in such a way that access is dangerous and hardly possible.
After all: there were apparently knocking noises, which is why the emergency services are hoping to find survivors. “It’s moving slowly,” says Ray Jadallah of the Miami Fire Department: “Whenever we try to break something away, stones fall on us.” According to Jadallah, helpers now want to build a tunnel from the parking garage under the premises to the interior of the house.
After the first shock, the question now comes into focus: How did this happen? The building was only 40 years old.
(Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui / AFP)
The building complex now looks like a monster movie where Godzilla or King Kong tore the side off, and that leads to the second question the day after: How did that happen?
The Champlain Towers South were built in 1981, according to Florida law, an inspection and major repairs to rusted steel and damaged concrete were due this year. The residents report mold, cracks in the walls, water in apartments; Six years ago, a resident filed a lawsuit against the owners on the grounds that the building was poorly maintained and that water was therefore entering the apartment through the cracks in the walls; her lawyer wrote of “serious deterioration”. A study of the Florida International University from last year showed the complex was sinking several inches per year due to erosion; Residents also report immense tremors when a nearby building was demolished.
No signs of imminent collapse
However, Kenneth Director, attorney for the Association of Residents, said in a statement that despite reports of damage and rust, the analysis had provided no evidence that the building was in danger of collapsing.
So it will take some time before the real reasons for the collapse become known, the search for the missing should also last until the weekend. The video that is now on view is disturbing; How bad it really looks is shown by the statement by Governor DeSantis, who declared a state of emergency in the district on Thursday evening. “It is traumatic to see such a huge building collapse,” he said. “The videos that are now on view do not do it justice.”