Claims engineer to investigate Miami building collapse

Four other bodies were identified on Sunday as rescuers continued their search for survivors of the Miami apartment collapse, while city officials hired a new engineer to investigate the cause of the disaster. and called for tighter inspections to allay fears of a future disaster.

Even after the death toll rose to nine and the number of missing residents remained around 150, some rescuers said it was possible that some residents were still alive under the remains of the South Champlain towers. “I hope that’s what I’m focusing on,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said at a morning press conference.

But as the day wore on, public authorities vowed to give the families of the missing a place to mourn and pray near the rubble.

“EWe work with families and there will be an opportunity for visitssaid Daniella Levine Cava, Democratic Mayor of Miami-Dade County.

Surfside officials want to understand why the South Champlain Towers collapsed. For this reason, they brought in a prestigious engineer to conduct an exhaustive investigation.

Allyn Kilsheimer said that You will examine the foundation, concrete, leaks, groundwater, and possible saltwater intrusion to come to a conclusion.

“Water penetration can be groundwater, tidal water and rainwater. We still don’t know the answer to any of them, ”said Kilsheimer, who has investigated other disasters such as the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City and the bombing. bomb in 1993 against the World Trade Center. His company also helped examine and reconstruct damaged sections of the Pentagon after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001..

“An answer is always possible; maybe that’s not what people want to hear, ”he said. “Probably 90% of the collapses we’ve faced, in addition to those caused by bombs and planes, have been several things gone wrong at the same time. The perfect storm”.

Referring to the theory that rising sea levels contributed to the collapse, he added that “the chances of this being a problem are slim at best.”

The Kilsheimer team is already doing computer modeling and building design analysis. On Saturday, he made a tour of the sister buildings of the demolished condo, the North Champlain towers and the East Champlain towers, to study various support columns, as well as the slab under the first floor.

“I did not see anything of concern for a mechanism of structural collapse,” he said. “Right now we have to let these rescuers do what they’re doing. Yes It is only when this is done and the debris is cleaned up that I will be able to access the site to do the things I need”.

Surfside Town City Manager Andy Hyatt said independent engineers from across the country have been hired to help the city’s own engineer Jim McGuinness inspect nearby buildings and the condo collapsed after the research work and rescue completed. .

An engineer warned in October 2018 that he had discovered “significant structural damage” on a concrete slab under the pool deck in the section of the building that collapsed, as the archives show. Engineer Frank P. Morabito said in a structural inspection report that the waterproofing under the pool deck and the pool entrance had failed, causing damaging leaks.

Kilsheimer said he didn’t believe the damage highlighted in the 2018 report could have resulted in the building collapsing. “Nothing about him raised a red flag,” he said.

One month after the publication of the 2018 report, a Surfside construction official told the condominium association executives that the building “is in very good condition», According to the minutes of a meeting of November 15, 2018 obtained by The Washington Post. The minutes were first reported by NPR.

The building manager at the 2018 meeting, Rosendo Prieto, could not be reached by The post office on Sunday.

Donna DiMaggio Berger, whose law firm represents the association, said: “We are not trying to point fingers. At present, we are only focusing on finding the survivors of the tragedy.. There will be a more appropriate time to unravel what happened. ”

Municipal authorities will also examine whether the construction over the past decade of a building less than 27 meters south of the collapsed condo may have had a negative effect on the old Champlain Towers. The most recent building, Eighty-Seven Park, is located in the city of Miami Beach, separated from the city limits of Surfside and South Champlain by only a strip of vegetation and a low concrete wall.

“We called to get the blueprints for this building, so we could see what happened there,” said Hyatt. “We’ll find out why, because it just doesn’t happen. We all know buildings don’t suddenly fall. Something extraordinary must have happened”.

In 2019, a resident emailed city construction officials complaining that construction of Eighty Seven Park was taking place too close to the South Champlain Towers. “We have concerns about the structure of our building“Mara Chouela wrote in an e-mail to Prieto and Margarita Brito, which was published by the city on Sunday.

“I have nothing to check,” Prieto replied. “The best course of action is to have someone check the fence, pool, and adjacent areas for damage or hire a consultant to monitor these areas as they are closest to construction.”

Since the collapse, residents of Tours Champlain Nord, the “twin building” 300 meters away and built the same year by the same designer, worried. wondered if their building was safe.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said on Sunday authorities would help residents voluntarily relocate if they did not feel safe.

Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said that the federal government will help pay for relocation.

“If you want to move, FEMA will help you with these arrangements,” Rubio said Sunday in an interview with “Face the Nation”. SCS.

Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency met with Surfside officials on Sunday afternoon to clarify details.

As research and investigations progress, A grumpy feeling has pervaded what is normally a summer beach playground.

At the Catholic Church in San José, less than half a kilometer from the disaster, a priest said a prayer for Lucia Guara, an 11-year-old girl who received her First Communion there.

Lucia, who lived in the tower, is one of the missing, as well as his father Marcus, 52, his mother Ana, 41, and sister Emma, ​​4.

The church was silent and dark as morning mass was celebrated amid the noise of helpers outside its windows.

Hyatt said this may apply to affected residents living in and around Surfside.

“I hear crackles and things that I’ve always heard. Turns out I’m next to the elevator, so I’m used to hearing that, and I always hear the garbage chute. But now when I hear these noises I’m like ‘What is this? ‘ ” He said.

“Every night when I come home and live on the 10th floor of a building a few blocks away, I usually open the shutters, look at the ocean and admire its beauty. But it’s like I don’t have the right to do this now. They lost their right to do that, so I can’t do that. I haven’t gotten to that point yet. “

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