159 Unaccounted For In Miami Condo Building Collapse: 7 Things To Know. In this photo, A rescue worker walks among the rubble where a wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed, Thursday, June 24, 2021, in the Surfside area of Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
***This story has been updated to show the confirmed number of victims has changed since it was first published on Friday, June 25.***
Loved ones are anxiously awaiting word about missing family members and friends after an oceanfront Miami condo building collapsed on Thursday. According to Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the numbers are “very fluid” and information about the tragedy is constantly evolving. Here are 7 things to know about the sudden collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in the town of Surfside, Florida.
Located just north of Miami Beach in Miami-Dade County, the 12-story Champlain Towers South partially collapsed at 1:23 a.m. on Thursday morning. Most of the residents in the building were presumed to be asleep at the time.
“The building has literally pancaked,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, according to the Wall Street Journal. “That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean to me that we’re going to be…as successful as we would want to be to find people alive … I think we’re going to one day find that there was something very strange going on at this building. Buildings just don’t fall down in America. They just don’t.”
Out of the 136 units in the condo, 55 of them were destroyed by the collapse, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. More than 30 survivors were rescued on Thursday, with 10 hospitalized with injuries, according to The Miami Herald.
The Miami condo building, located at 8777 Collins Ave., was built in 1981 and was undergoing a recertification process required by Florida law for buildings 40 years or older. There was also work being done on the roof.
As of Monday, the morning of June 28, 152 people remained unaccounted for, and the confirmed death toll has risen to 9. That number has changed from 159 missing and 4 confirmed dead on Friday. Recovery efforts have been complicated by the way the building pancaked, fires and the need to exercise immense caution while going through the debris and stormy weather, including lightning.
“Unfortunately, this has been a tragic night,” Cava said during a press conference Friday morning. “We do have 120 people now accounted for which is very, very good news; but our unaccounted-for number has gone up to 159. In addition, we can tragically report the death count is now 4.”
A large search and rescue mission is ongoing, but there have been no more survivors found yet. The continued shifting of debris has made the rescue attempt extremely risky for first-responders, authorities said. Yet they have vowed to continue.
“We will continue search and rescue because we still have hope that we will find people alive,” Cava said. “That is exactly why we are continuing.”
Many of the residents of the Champlain Towers South were from overseas, largely Latin America, according to reports. “Almost 1/3 of those now reported missing after the Surfside tragedy are foreign nationals,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted. “We are working with the Consulates of various countries in the Western Hemisphere to help secure travel visas for family members who need to travel to the U.S.”
The international residents of the Miami condo building are said to be from Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Columbia, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and more. Of those missing, six are Paraguayan nationals, including relatives of Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez, according to its foreign ministry.
They include the first lady’s sister Sophia López-Moreira, her husband, Luis Pettengill, their three children and their nanny, Lady Luna Villalba.
In an interview with USA Today, Florida International Professor Shimon Wdowinski said a study they conducted last year showed the Miami condo building had been sinking at a faster-than-normal rate since 1990s.
“I looked at it this morning and said, ‘Oh my god.’ We did detect that,” said Wdowinski, who works in the Department of Earth and Environment. While he did not say the sinking caused the collapse, Wdowinski noted that the 2020 study found Champlain Towers South were sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters per year in the 1990s.
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Wdowinski said the university didn’t report the data to anyone in the local government specifically, nor did he think anyone was aware of it.
“It was a byproduct of analyzing the data (which had been collected from 1993 to 1999). We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement. We didn’t give it too much importance.”
The study also found that other structures near Surfside were also sinking, indicative of Miami’s continued threat of sea-level rise.
Former Surfside Mayor Daniel Dietch, whose term ended in 2020, cautioned against drawing swift conclusions. “This is an extraordinarily unusual event, and it is dangerous and counterproductive to speculate on its cause,” Dietch said.
However, current Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer wants answers. “This was not an act of God. This was not a natural disaster. Buildings don’t just fall,” Salzhauer said, but added the Commission hadn’t received any serious complaints about the building. “If a building had serious problems, we would certainly know about it.”
In a 2015 lawsuit, a condo owner “alleged building management failed to maintain an outside wall, resulting in water damage and cracks,” USA Today reported. It was one of two suits filed and the homeowner was awarded damages in one of the suits.
Attorney Brad Sohn filed a calss-action lawsuit late Thursday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Sohn is “representing a proposed class of Champlain Towers South homeowners” who allege “the condo association failed ‘to secure and safeguard the lives and property’ of lead plaintiff Manuel Drezner and other residents,” The Miami Herald reported. Drezner was not in the building when it collapsed.
“As a lawyer, I can’t fix what is irreparable,” Soh said. “But what I can do is fight to immediately fully compensate these victims so that they can focus all of their energy on healing as best they can. Our investigation continues, but we strongly believe this was preventable.”
President Joe Biden declared the area a disaster and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support the relief efforts. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Mayor Cava also declared the collapse a disaster.
In addition to rescue crews, there is a family reunification center set up for families and survivors. Families are being provided with food, clothing and grief counselling, according to Cava.
“We have the resources for the families at the Family Reunification Center,” Cava said. “We’ve been actively providing them everything that they need. Food shelter, cash to assist with their basic needs and grief counseling — obviously a very critical component as we move forward as people are anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones.”
Anyone who wants to donate can visit surfside.org and thechesedfund.org.
