A multi-story building near Miami has partially collapsed, authorities say

[OhioChick]

Source: CNN

Updated 5:06 AM ET, Thu June 24, 2021

(CNN)Authorities in South Florida were responding early Thursday to a "partial building collapse," the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said.
"#MDFR is on scene of a partial building collapse near 88 Street & Collins Avenue." the agency said in a tweet.
In a separate news release, it said more than 80 rescue units were at the location, including Technical Rescue Teams, along with assistance from municipal fire departments.

CNN has reached out to Miami Beach Fire Rescue and the Miami Beach Mayor's office.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.



Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/24/us/building-collapse-miami-thursday/index.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Looks residential - at that time of night (2am), could be very serious

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57592827

[PatSeg]

10. Yes

Most, if not all of the residents would be at home. What an absolute horror.

[TheBlackAdder]

22. Here is security camera footage of the collapse.

.

WSVN 7 News
@wsvn
JUST IN: 7News has obtained surveillance video of the moment the Champlain Towers South Condo collapsed in Surfside early this morning.

According to a fire official, 35 people were pulled from the collapsed building. Search and rescue efforts ongoing. https://wsvn.com/news/local/1-d

Link to tweet

.

[IowaGuy]

28. It's kind of hard to tell from this video, but it appears...

that the building collapses from the top center down, each floor collapsing to the one below, creating increasing kinetic energy as it progresses down (like Hyatt Regency, Kansas City collapse). Finally the side of the building to the right in the video collapsed towards the center as it's structural integrity decayed. There appeared to be a bright flash in the top floors in the center of the building at the beginning of the video. Can't really tell if that was arc flash from electrical power grounding out as it collapsed or something else that happened at the beginning of the collapse that possibly was a causal factor. In any case, my gut feel on initial viewing is something happened up top on the building to cause this. It will be interesting to see what the investigation shows to be the cause.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. "mass casualty event" /nt

[SheltieLover]

3. K&R!

Awful!

[Maeve]

4. It's a condo, 40 years old

A large condo building along the beachfront in Surfside, Fla., partially collapsed early Thursday morning, killing at least one person, injuring at least 10 and prompting a mass search-and-rescue response from local authorities.

More than 80 units from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue rushed to the scene in the city just north of Miami Beach after 2 a.m., the agency said on Twitter, joining first responders from multiple other agencies. The 12-story building, which was built in 1981, has more than 100 units, the Miami Herald reported.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/06/24/surfside-building-collapse-miami-dade/

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. I live in an earthquake zone

Yet I've never seen a forty year old building collapse.

Makes one wonder about who built this thing.

[Warpy]

23. If it stayed up for 40 years, it wa built just fine

but a lot of things can happen to buildings over time as they're sold and structural engineers don't get consulted.

In addition, it's sitting on sand with piling driven down to solid rock. Solid rock is a relative thing in a lot of Florida, and can be limestone which is prone to failure.

Buildings about to fail are LOUD, so one hopes people were awakened in time to get out. In addition, I hope the oceanside units were being held as Air Bnb rentals and were empty I'd be surprised to find out the building was at capacity.

Still, there are very likely to be casualties, a lot of them. There are also going to be financial casualties as people who bought into high rises on beaches are going to reconsider their folly.

Still, a spontaneous building failure this size is hard to believe, even in Florida. It will most likely take a year or so to find out all the things that contributed to it. I just hope I'm right about investors and Air BnB and that it was way below capacity when it went.

[dhol82]

40. I read it was a tight knit family building. They did not allow air B&B's

[Warpy]

45. Not that surprised. I looked on their site and there were only 5 for sale, none for rent

I'm guessing either a subterranean failure around the pilings or something like an upgraded AC unit on the roof that exceeded live load limits. It takes a lot to make a decently constructed building fail like that.

[pstokely]

49. something cheaply built

or poorly maintained

[knightmaar]

5. Poor building codes? Not following codes? Underground weakness/sinkhole?

I'd interested to find out how this could happen.

[JI7]

13. I was wondering if someone was messing around with something

like the people whose homes blew up because of fireworks because stashed there .

[Traildogbob]

31. Blocked building regs and minimal codes

For profit?????? Russian mob contracted poor quality cement????? Trump money laundering Putin Paper big in Florida. Just opinion, nothing else. Questions should be asked.
I do however feel very bad for the people. Even if they are Floridians. If this turns out to be shotty construction for profits, They are victims of corruption and greed as are so many throughout this country. Take “In God We Trust” off all currency. It is cash in which we trust, damn the people.

[regnaD kciN]

56. Doubt there'd be any Russian involvement...

...in the construction of a condo tower built in Miami in 1981 -- back then, they were still the Evil Empire.

[twodogsbarking]

6. A resident said she heard an explosion.

Could just be the collapse. Wait for more information.

[Maxheader]

7. I just took a look at that..

on cnn..If I was a resident of the non collapsed part, i'd be getting out..pronto...


https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/miami-florida-building-collapse-06-24-21/index.html|

[marble falls]

8. "This is a horrific catastrophe. In the United States, buildings just don't fall down," ...

Welcome to GOP Florida, the land of "who needs regulations"?

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. Sadly, I have to agree.

Corporate profits have long been more important to the Florida government than people are.

[ancianita]

17. While you're right, it was also built back in the days of Democratic governors.

FL had mostly Democratic governors until Jeb Bush.

https://www.nga.org/former-governors/florida/

[marble falls]

21. The problem wasn't the being built 40 years ago, the problem seems to be maintenance.

[ancianita]

26. Yes. That's the issue. And maintaining against

tidal erosions is impossible.

I only mentioned past governors if folks were going there.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. Historically that is the case

The 1920s bust in Florida real estate was horrific, I seem to recall reading, because people could buy lacreage with little money down. It drove prices up, but the fall was vertical.

Sometime in the 1980s in some book I couldn't hope to recover they said don't buy penny stocks in the state of Florida nor use a broker there. Lax Blue Sky laws as I recall.

[smb]

47. Yep

"You can have any kind of a home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stuck-o!"
--Groucho Marx, "Cocoanuts"

[csziggy]

62. Yes, the 1928 Florida Land Bust was bad

Partly because much of the land was sold sight unseen, sometimes by both seller and buyer. Some of it was swampland.

My grandfather had money to invest at the time since he had a steady job with Swift & Company. He didn't buy during the balloon of pricing, but he did buy up some land after the Bust. One piece he bought was actually a wet land that had been a peat bog. 395 acres divided into 5 acre plots. He thought the water might come back and it would be a water source that could be valuable since it was starting to be surrounded by orange groves.

The family paid property taxes on that land for decades. In the 1990s my Dad tried to donate it to the Nature Conservancy and they wouldn't take it. They were more interested in buying up subdivision plots along the Lake Wales Ridge. A few years later a tree company made an offer since they needed peat to use in the pots for their trees. But hey had a contingency that it had to clear the Federal and state EPA agencies.

The &%&*)(O Nature Conservancy held up the sale for YEARS while the tree company had to prove that an endangered skink did not live there. That skink lived along the Lake Wales Ridge, not in some mostly dried out peat bog and there had never been a sighting of any of them in that area. Eventually both EPAs approved the deal and we sold the land about 75 years after Granddad bought it.

We've now sold all the various plots of land that Granddad and my Dad bought over the years. The only piece of land I want to own in Florida is my farm outside Tallahassee on a high red clay ridge.

[Submariner]

9. Lots of limestone from ancient coral reefs

under the Miami region. A small sinkhole under a foundation support could cause a partial collapse.

[Rollo]

55. Yup, cause could be a sinkhole

Plus another poster stated they'd seen an article that stated the structure's foundation has been sinking for quite some time.

[not fooled]

12. Global warming leading to sea level rise

implicated?



If so, just another cost of using fossil fuels.

[PortTack]

25. Was thinking that too..with continued rising tides in these areas did it undermine the foundation?

[LittleGirl]

14. It's across from the Oceanside.

It could be a sinkhole on steroids. Those poor people.

[melm00se]

15. In addition to

a sinkhole, it could also be one exposed piece of rebar that acted as an entry point for corrosion.

Moist salt air is corrosive as hell.

As to a political blame game:

If the building is 40 years old, that would put it in the 1980s.

D's held the state legislator from 1889 until 1992.
The governorship with 2 exceptions was also held by D's.

[mjvpi]

24. Building code enforcement and corrupt contractors. That could be a county problem.

It’s all speculation at this point. Sink hole sounds more proportional.

[csziggy]

32. Until Hurricane Andrew in 1992, building codes and inspection were poor in Florida

That's why so many houses lost their roofs and structural integrity during the storm - they didn't have strapping to hold the roof on the building and similar defects.

After Andrew the building codes were toughened but I doubt they completely re-educated their inspectors.

But this building was built before the codes were improved - and some reports state that it was undergoing renovation and having a new roof put on.

I suspect the ultimate cause of the collapse will be a combination of factors - poor construction, poor maintenance, poor materials, poor procedures in the renovation, and more.

[mjvpi]

60. I tend to get my information on all things Florida from the official state historian

David Hiaasen

[csziggy]

61. I thought that was Carl?

I haven't read any of his books yet, but I understand he knows are the swampy stuff about Florida.

[mjvpi]

63. You're correct. Carl.

I got hooked on his books after years of visiting my parents and my in-laws in Florida. The Tampa Bay Tribune is a great newspaper. Reading about all the crazy stuff that would happen with people and politicians i would be beside myself. My mother in-law suggested that I read Hiaasen. His books are are so close to Florida reality. Big fun.

[csziggy]

64. Unfortunately the Tampa Tribune is gone

It and the St. Pete Time - my favorite paper for that area - merged and are now the Tampa Bay Times.

I grew up in the center of the state in the phosphate mining world. Both my grandfather and my Dad were mining engineers and made their living destroying the Polk County habitat. They knew the history of that area from 1923 on. My Mom became editor of the Polk County Historical Quarterly and my Dad's contacts got a lot of great stories about the area published.

I'll have to start reading Carl Hiaasen. He's been recommended lots of times.

[GusBob]

30. Im speculating its the rebar as well

When I lived in Daytona the beachside condos were having issues with the rebar

[Paladin]

16. If fellow FL resident trump on site, offering aid and comfort?

Yeah, that's what I figured...

[turbinetree]

20. Rising sea water, building near the coast, and its raining today....and the land under the building

is well sand, muck. sandy loam...........how far down to bedrock to anchor that rebar?


https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/1-dead-massive-search-and-rescue-effort-after-partial-collapse-of-condo-building-in-surfside/2479570/

[snort]

27. Hopefully it was a parking garage.

[wnylib]

33. It was a 12 story condo unit.

[getagrip_already]

29. NOT a partial collapse - it was a complete collapse of a portion of a complex

of buildings linked together to look like one.

It looks like 2 of the towers completely collapsed, leaving others intact.

There was nothing partial about the portions that collapsed.

[csziggy]

34. Looking at Google Maps, there is an identical building just a block north

I hope that one is carefully inspected. It also looks as though the ground floor and maybe another floor were parking garages. This is often done in ocean front property so when they get storm surge, only cars are flooded and not residential areas.

Google Maps, aerial view.

You'll have to zoom in to get a good look, but you can see the identical structure one block north. The collapsed building is at 8777 Collins Ave. the identical building is at 8877 Collins.

[dhol82]

38. Wow, exactly the same! Hope they do a complete inspection.

[ruet]

42. Seems it Would Be Prudent To...

examine every structure built by that general contractor and any, structural, subcontractors within the time period the collapsed building was constructed.

[csziggy]

44. What's weird is that on one of the broadcasts they identified the collapsed building as

The Champlain Towers - but Google Maps identifies that as a non-involved building halfway between the two identical buildings.

Oh! There are at least three "Champlain Towers" - North, East (the middle building), and South, the collapsed building. Confusing.

[LudwigPastorius]

35. I have to wonder if...

this could be due to rising seawater undermining the building's foundation.

[dalton99a]

36. NEXT: DeSantis requests emergency federal funds

[dhol82]

37. Just read in WAPO that 51 are still unaccounted for.

[Marrah_Goodman]

39. So sad :(

I hope they find some alive

[Politicub]

51. It's up to 99 now n/t

[BlueWavePsych]

41. Eroded foundation from rising seas? Couldn't be! Climate Change is a hoax.

[sarcasmo]

43. Shocked this story getting more national coverage.

[JenniferJuniper]

46. Pricey units

https://www.miamiresidence.com/surfside/champlain-towers/condo-602-a11049789.htm

[dhol82]

48. Poor owner just listed it May 31.

I think that’s a reasonable price for a 2/2 condo right on the beach in that area. Probably could have been negotiated down a bit.

[Beacool]

50. Horrible!!!

It's a luxury building by the ocean. This kind of total structural failure must have been in the making for a long time. The salinity in the air, heat and humidity in South Florida corrode everything. It was the only state where DeLorean didn't guarantee his DMC-12 cars against rust. This brings back memories of 9/11 and the missing posters everywhere, but this is a small area and the bodies will be found soon enough. My heart goes out to the families of all the dead and missing. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

[Sgent]

53. Almost no one will have insurance for this (I'm guessing)

earthquake insurance which is what would probably cover this is fairly rare in FL.

[regnaD kciN]

58. This wouldn't be something covered by earthquake insurance...

...since there was no earthquake at the time.

[Sgent]

59. It covers earth movement

if a sinkhole developed it would cover that.

[PoliticAverse]

54. And things get worse - Flames, smoke break out at site of deadly Surfside condo collapse

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

57. Florida building collapse latest: 3 dead, as many as 99 missing

At least three people are dead and as many as 99 are unaccounted for after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed in Miami-Dade County, Florida, early Thursday, a county official told ABC News.

The collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach, was reported around 1:30 a.m. A massive search and rescue operation was launched before dawn and crews are still carefully combing through the wreckage and remaining structure in hopes of finding survivors.

So far, crews have rescued 35 people who were trapped in the building and two others from beneath the rubble, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Officials said 102 people have been accounted for.

Teams of firefighters have been cutting through the rubble and placing sonar devices as part of the search efforts. Responders have not heard any voices coming from the pile, though have picked up "a possibility of a banging," according to Jadallah.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/florida-building-collapse-latest-3-dead-as-many-as-99-missing/ar-AALnGxF