Miami collapse...She could see a crater in the pool area......

[USALiberal]

Appearing to reinforce the experts’ theory is the story of a resident who called her husband moments before the collapse to tell him she could see a crater in the pool area from the fourth-floor balcony of their ocean-front apartment. Then the line went dead, said Mike Stratton, who was out of town at the time. His wife, Cassie, is among the 159 people who are still unaccounted for.

Greg Batista, a professional engineer who specializes in concrete repair and worked on the Surfside condo’s pool deck in 2017, said that the way the building fell points to an initial collapse in the pool deck collapse area. Structural engineer and retired building inspector Gene Santiago agreed that was a probable trigger and pointed to a 2018 inspection, first reported by the Herald, that noted “major structural damage” below the pool deck.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252396233.html#storylink=cpy

[SunSeeker]

1. Horrifying. He knows his wife's body is in that rubble.

Then the line went dead, said Mike Stratton, who was out of town at the time. 

[USALiberal]

2. Terrifying! Nt

[wyn borkins]

3. Informational Only

There is a stunning surveillance video of the condo collapse in the linked article detailing the fall of two portions of that very large building.

[USALiberal]

5. Thanks! Nt

[Klaralven]

4. Is there a Property Management company involved? Or was the HOA maintaining the building itself?

A condo building of that size and height really needs a professional maintenance organization.

[USALiberal]

11. I am not sure. Nt

[Ziggysmom]

6. I've always had a fear of high rise buildings. I'm ok with natural heights like mountains

but could not live in a building like that. Having the ocean so close scares me, too. I’m a rural midwestern flatlander, and prefer my feet on the ground. Praying for the poor people suffering from this tragedy. Life is so fragile and fleeting; things like this make me hug my family and friends more often.

[USALiberal]

7. Scary how quick your whole life changes! Nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

8. Fellow midwestern flatlander here. I could never imagine living in a high-rise building.

My visits into tall things - like the Seattle Space Needle, or once to the Windows On the World (World Trade Center) - leave with a nice souvenir photo, and the desire to get back down to the ground ASAP.

[TexasBushwhacker]

12. I'm not crazy about them either

I don't like having to use elevators because they can go out, sometimes for days. I don't like stairs because I have arthritis. Ground floor for me.

[Renew Deal]

13. I like tall buildings

But they pose risks, especially in Florida. The biggest risk is fire. But there is also high winds, plane crashes, earthquakes, and collapse. I think hurricanes in Florida make them even more scary.

Check out this video from the 2011 Japan earthquake. These buildings held up well. But not all are as well built.

[treestar]

15. They are built for that in earthquake prone areas

I think maybe they even are built on rollers.

[wnylib]

14. This event has made me a bit nervous.

I live in a 6 story apartment building that is over 100 years old. It was originally a commercial business building. Hoping that construction regs and materials were sound back then. I know that it has been inspected and maintained regularly, but ...?

[tanyev]

9. OMG, I'm imagining him not getting too worried just because the phone line went dead,

but then how much later did he hear the news that there had been a building collapse right where he lived?

[USALiberal]

10. Really sad story! Nt

[wnylib]

16. NPR had a heartbreaking interview

this morning with a survivor of the collapse. She said the sound and shaking of her bed woke her. She opened her apartment door and saw that the elevator across the hall was gone. Then she noticed that there were only two apartments left on her floor.

She knocked on the doors of those apartments and they all started down the fire escape with other survivors, rushing as fast as they could in the debris all around them. She could hear a lot of screams from people trapped in the rubble.

Once on the ground, people hugged her. The security guard from a luxury building next door took her inside his building.

She was crying when she said that, in her fear, she had rushed out without her cat. She felt selfish for not going back to get her. The interviewer reminded her that she might have died if she had gone back and that she had done what she needed to do to survive. The survivor said she goes as near to the collapsed building as she can get each day, hoping the cat somehow survived and will turn up. Also hoping to see that some of her neighbors not accounted for will have made it or that the people she heard screaming were rescued.

She talked about a woman that she knew well and had ridden up the elevator with only hours before the collapse who is now missing and presumed dead.

By the end of the interview, I was in tears with her.

She also was very emphatic that a city employee had assurred them that the building was perfectly safe to remain in.

[USALiberal]

17. So sad! Thanks for posting this!! Nt