Rescastists working for the fifth day at the site of the partial collapse of a 12-story building in Surfside, near Miami, announced on Monday the discovery of the body of a new victim, which there are already 10 dead.
The number of people disappeared by the landslide in the state of Florida thus stands at 151 and there are 135 people from the building located, according to the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Daniella Levine Cava, who promised to go “to the bottom” in the investigation to determine the causes of this tragedy.
Miami-Dade Fire Deputy Chief Ray Jadallah indicated that this afternoon the rescuers will change their positions on the mountain of rubble so that the heavy machinery lift a large concrete slab armed in an area where several bodies have been found these days.
For reasons not yet determined, the northeast wing of the Champlain Towers building, inaugurated in 1981 and with a total of 136 apartments, collapsed in seconds at 1.30 am on Thursday, June 24, when its inhabitants were sleeping.
Fifty-five apartments were turned into a pile of rubble, where today more than 240 people worked in different jobs but with one priority: finding survivors, according to Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett.
Burkett stated that although five days have passed since the collapse, there is still it is possible to find people alive, as has been demonstrated in earthquakes and other similar catastrophes.
International tragedy
Most of the fatalities identified so far were of Hispanic origin.
Among the deceased are Antonio and Gladys Lozano, a married couple of origin Cuban 83 and 79 years old, who, according to their relatives, feared being separated by death and would have been married for 59 years in July.
The venezuelans Leon Oliwkowicz, 80, and Cristina Beatriz Elvira, 74, had also been married for many years.
Another identified victim is Manuel LaFont, a 54-year-old separated man from Houston, Texas, who liked to play basketball with his son in a nearby park.
Ana Ortiz, 46, and Luis Bermúdez, 26, were mother and son and came from Puerto Rico.
The first victim identified was 54-year-old American Stacie Dawn Fang, whose 15-year-old son, Jonah Handler, who was pulled alive from the remains of the building on the same day of the collapse, is recovering from his injuries in hospital.
The priority continues to be focused on finding survivors or remains of victims of the collapse, but they are also looking for clues to possible causes from what has occured.
Surfside’s mayor has tasked a team of engineers, led by veteran Allyn Kilshemer, with the task of determining how the entire northeast wing of the 12-story, 40-year-old building was able to collapse from top to bottom in a matter of seconds.
Kilsheimer of KCE Structural Engineers said after visiting the site, in a statement reported to the press, that there is no visible evidence of a major structural failure.
Collapsed building problems in Florida
In addition, the Surfside mayor’s office published this Monday a new batch of documents which are in his records on the damaged building, showing, like others published before, the structural and other problems he had.
Among them are some from 2019 in which the Champlain Towers homeowners association expressed their concern to the municipality about the effects that the construction of a large building nearby could have on the structure.
A year earlier, a report from an engineering firm had indicated that there was “significant” structural damage in the building, due in large part to the fact that a waterproofing sheet in the pool area had been improperly placed, which prevented the water from draining correctly and recommended making repairs.
The Miami Herald newspaper published an information on Monday in which it is stated that a month after that report, the official then in charge of these issues at the Mayor’s Office, whom he identifies as Ross Prieto, told residents of Champlain Towers that the Building was “in a very good condition”.
The Miami Herald contacted Prieto and said he did not remember what he said in a meeting with the condominium board, as recorded in a minute that the newspaper had access to.
The causes of the collapse are already being investigated by the competent authorities, but it is taken for granted that it will be a long and complex investigation and the answers will not arrive as soon as the survivors and the families of the victims would like.
IM
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