SURFSIDE, Fla. — A “grueling” effort continues Tuesday for a sixth day to search for possible survivors of the deadly collapse of the Surfside condo building, which was showing signs of an “accelerating” concrete failure about two months ago.
“You’re missing until you’re found,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters, as 150 people are unaccounted for and 11 dead in the official count that remained unchanged as of late Tuesday morning. “We don’t stop the search.”
While there have been no sight or sounds of survivors since the hours immediately following the destruction, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett insisted: “Nobody’s giving up hope here. Nobody’s stopping.”
Meanwhile, USA Today was first to report an April 9 letter sent from the president of the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, citing how damage to the building’s basement garage had “gotten significantly worse” since an inspection about 2 1/2 years earlier.
Over seven pages to her “Dear Neighbors,” Jean Wodnicki outlined major repairs required for the building, which were first brought to light in a 2018 inspection by Morabito Consultants. That review found a “major error” in the design of the building, crumbling concrete columns in the garage area beneath the structure, and predicted that failure to fix the problems in the “near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”
The April letter revealed by USA Today stated, “The concrete deterioration is accelerating.” Residents were also told the building’s roof had become “much worse” and required additional repairs, with total price tag for all of the work soaring from about $9.1 million in 2018 to $16.2 million this year.
“A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now,” Wodnicki wrote in the letter, which was confirmed to The Associated Press by a spokesman for the condo board.
Meanwhile, assigning blame for the disaster is the focus of government investigations, civil lawsuits and, in the coming months, a criminal grand jury.
The Miami Herald reported that State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said she will ask a grand jury to examine the condo collapse and related public safety issues.
“I am going to urge them to take a look at it,” she said, adding: “Whether they do or not, it’s completely their decision.”
Grand juries sometimes look at broader issues of public safety, with subpar building codes coming into focus after Hurricane Andrew hit the region in 1992. A grand jury also can bring forward criminal charges. The state attorney’s office is still reviewing the case of the deadly 2018 collapse of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University.
Reports continued to emerge about warnings of structural failures and defects in the 12-story building before it suddenly fell in the overnight hours last Thursday.
A commercial pool contractor who visited the building on June 22, only days before it collapsed, told the Miami Herald that he thought there was nothing unusual at the condo — until he saw the basement-level garage.
The man, who asked not to be named, was preparing a bid for pool work to be included in the multimillion-dollar restoration project that just was getting underway. He was troubled by what he saw and photographed in the basement-level parking garage — cracking concrete and severely corroded rebar under the pool.
“There was standing water all over the parking garage,” the contractor told the Herald.
A building staff member who showed him around the area told the contractor that it was likely waterproofing issues, but the contractor told the Herald, “I thought to myself, that’s not normal.”
The contractor noted that he was told that pumps could not keep up with standing water in the Champlain Towers South.
Authorities say they have no plans to halt rescue efforts they say are unprecedented for an emergency in the state aside from a hurricane response. More than 400 workers from across the state and from Israel and Mexico have joined the crusade.
Usually six or seven squads, each with six members, rotate in and out every 45 minutes during 12-hour shifts. They already have moved over 3 million pounds of concrete rubble, officials said.
With relatives imploring the rescuers to increase the pace, the dangerous work has persisted through rainstorms and sweltering heat.
“It is such painstaking, grueling work,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “They live to save lives.”
The governor said he met with relatives of people missing from the building, and he noted how the stories of the victims “have touched people all across the world.”
“It has been very heartbreaking, very touching,” DeSantis said. Families were told the rescue efforts were continuing around the clock.
Deciding to transition from search and rescue work to a recovery operation is agonizing, Dr. Joseph A. Barbera, a professor at George Washington University, told The Associated Press. That decision is fraught with considerations, he said, that only those on the ground can make.
Barbera co-authored a study examining disasters where some people survived under rubble for prolonged periods of time. He told the AP he has also advised teams on where to look for potential survivors and when to conclude “that the probability of continued survival is very, very small.”
Rabbi Ariel Yeshurun, spiritual leader of the Skylake Synagogue in North Miami Beach, told CNN that three of his Orthodox Jewish congregants are among the missing. For their families bracing for the unknown, “Fear is constant and overwhelming,” he said.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are planning to travel to Surfside on Thursday to visit with the families of victims, according to the White House.
On Monday, his administration said it supports a full examination of what caused the Surfside tragedy that includes the deployment of experts from multiple federal agencies including emergency managers and the FBI.
“Certainly, we want to play any constructive role we can play with federal resources in getting to the bottom of it and preventing it from happening in the future,” press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a White House briefing.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., whose district includes Surfside, said the investigations would likely lead to changes in federal law to protect the integrity of condo buildings up and down the coast.
“How are we going to deal with the long-term implications of this?” she said.
At the Tuesday morning news conference, Levine Cava said a building audit in the county had prompted the immediate closure of four balconies in a building in the northeast part of Miami-Dade County.
The sweeping review includes structures four stories and taller in the county that are approaching the 40-year recertification mark, along with 10 buildings that recently completed that process and 14 buildings in unincorporated Miami-Dade County that meet those guidelines. Any possible life-threatening issues with those structures will be addressed, Levine Cava said.
The mayor also said she was meeting with numerous building safety experts on a mission “to ensure a tragedy like this will never happen again.”
A 2018 engineering consultant’s report warned of “major structural damage” at the base of the building and also identified a “major error” in the placement of waterproofing on a flat rather than sloped surface, allowing the pooling of water.
The report to the condo association by Morabito Consultants said “failed waterproofing” below the pool deck and entrance drive at Champlain Towers South had led to significant deterioration of the concrete.
Replacing the waterproofing would be “extremely expensive,” the report stated, because it would require removal of the concrete slab above it.
“Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,” said the report, which was signed by Frank Morabito, the company’s president.
After completing the 2018 report, the firm was hired in June 2020 to create plans for the repairs, which would be done by another company. The report was posted on the Town of Surfside’s website along with inspection reports and other documents about the collapsed building.
“At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were underway, but concrete restoration had not yet begun,” a company statement said.
Meanwhile, most residents of Champlain Towers North have remained, saying they are confident their building is better maintained and doesn’t have the same problems with cracking in support beams and in the pool area, according to the AP.
Surfside Mayor Burkett said nothing was found in an inspection that indicates the almost 40-year-old 12-story tower is at risk of a similar collapse.
That hasn’t convinced everyone.
Rebecca Weinstock, a snowbird who bought a sixth-floor condo in the north building four years ago with her husband, told an AP reporter she is “petrified of returning” and is staying in New York, for now.
“I am out my investment, I am out my apartment, I am out my future, but we are talking about lives here,” she said, adding she’ll wait for a safety check by two independent engineers from outside South Florida.
North tower residents have been offered federal assistance if they wish to temporarily relocate.
Miami-Dade Police identified three more victims Monday night as Marcus Joseph Guara, 52, Frank Kleiman, 55, and Michael David Altman, 50.
The names of another four people confirmed killed in the disaster were released Sunday night.
The remains of Luis Bermudez, 26, his mother Anna Ortiz, 46, Leon Oliwkowicz, 80, and Christina Beatriz Evira, 74, were discovered after rescue workers labored to dig a 125-foot trench through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South tower, Miami-Dade police said.
“God decided that he wanted one more angel in heaven. I still do not believe it. I LOVE you and will love you forever,” Luis Bermudez’s father, who is also named Luis Bermudez, wrote on Facebook.
Of the 11 confirmed fatalities so far, one died at the hospital and the others were found dead at the site.
The first four victims to be named were Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, Antonio Lozano, 83, Gladys Lozano, 79, and Manuel LaFont, 54.
Families and individuals who have been displaced were told they can register at SurfsideReunite.com, an alert system created by the state of Florida, Miami-Dade County and the town of Surfside to provide updates and access to resources. People can register for alerts by visiting SurfsideReunite.com or by calling the toll-free number (833) 930-3701.
