“I feel like I’m in a dream”

For those who survived the Champlain Towers building collapse in Miami, the scene of the ruins not only causes them pain because of what happened with their friends and neighbors, but also a common emotion to this type of episodes, as is the case the survivor’s fault.

From a man who put forward a trip to a young man who decided at the last minute stay with his girlfriend, the stories of residents who were not in the building on the night of the tragedy seem to have only chance as a common factor.

Jay Miller, a 75-year-old retired academic, lived in the housing complex for 3 years. Originally from Philadelphia, he went on a summer trip every year to spend a few months in that city, where he still had a house and where most of his friends lived.

Usually I left Florida at the end of June, but this year decided to move his trip forward because he had to sell his house. In the days leading up to the trip, he had the impulse to change the date of the train ticket to stay a few more days at the beach, but he ultimately decided to go ahead with his original plan.

“Why wasn’t I in my apartment? At that point, that would have been where I would have been. I made the decision to travel, and I wasn’t there when it was. happened, “he explains in an interview he gave to the newspaper. The Washington Post.

Miller said he discovered the collapse while looking at the news on his cell phone. “I first saw it was a building in Miami, then I saw it was in Surfside. I thought it was right where I lived, then I continued a bit more a long time, and I saw that on the 88th said “it’s very close to where I was. living. “I finally saw that it was 8777, and I knew this was my building “, he detailed.

Soon after, he started receiving messages from friends asking him where he was. It is only from their testimonies that they told him what had happened that he became aware of the disaster, and how much it had touched him.

On news channels, he began to see photos of his friends and neighbors among whom they appeared to be missing. People with whom he has chatted and shared everyday moments.

“When you lose a friend, it’s a normal cycle of life,” Miller said. “But when you have all these people, and you see people died that you should have been with and you weren’t, it’s really shocking and you think: ‘I should have been there ‘“.

Miller has decided to postpone the sale of his house and stay in Philadelphia for now, taking advantage of the community of friends he has. Despite the drama, wants to go back to Miami and spend your retirement there.

A last minute decision

Erick De Moura got up at 5:30 am to go to the bathroom when he remembered that he had to look for his cell phone to set an alarm for the next day. He was at his girlfriend, Fernanda Figueiredo, and saw that he had received a text message from a guard at his building.

“How lucky you are alivethe woman replied to De Moura when the man called her to ask her what was wrong.

The woman explained that the building had collapsed and sent her a photo of the ruins and rubble. Incredulous and shocked, De Moura got into his car and drove to the scene of the tragedy to see with his own eyes what had happened.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” he said The Washington Post. “It’s amazing to see the place where you have lived for the past three years and considered my home, collapsed like this.”

De Moura stayed at the girlfriend’s house after a reunion with friends that ended late after watching Brazil’s match against Colombia for the Copa América. It wasn’t normal for me to do this on a weekday, and he only did so after she insisted several times.

De Moura says that from now on he feels angry and confused, and he hasn’t been able to cry yet. Despite the tragedy, he returns twice a day to the scene of the disaster, as it is the only place in Miami where he felt safe and familiar.

“I feel like I’m in a dream, in a bad movie,” he confessed. “For me and for Fernanda, it was a miracle. An act of God. “