The terrifying tale of a Miami collapse survivor: “Something supernatural woke me up”

Maria Iliana Monteagudo is relatively new to Surfside, Miami. He used all the money he had after his divorce – $ 600,000 in cash – to buy his home., number 611, in December.

I was delighted with the ocean view and the friendly neighbors. “I liked the apartment, the beautiful view, the beautiful building,” Monteagudo said in an interview. “No one told me anything bad about it. I bought the apartment blind. They all left out the reality. “

She was sleeping Thursday morning when a strange sensation woke her up. “It felt like something supernatural had woken me up. I felt something strange and thought, ‘Oh, I forgot to close the sliding balcony door and the wind is making noise,’ ”he said. “I tried to close the sliding door and felt the building move. The door was not closing, ”he explained.

Then Monteagudo heard a crackle. There was a line on the wall coming down from the ceiling, about two fingers wide. “Then it started to get wider and wider as I watched,” he said. “I was like, ‘You have to run. You have to run right away.

“I ran to my room, took off my robe and put on a robe and sandals. I ran to the dining room table, took my bag and my credit cards. I took the key, I put out the candle that I have every night for Guadalupe de México, “he said. “I blew out the candle, just in case.

Monteagudo ran for the stairs, descending quickly. Between the sixth and the fourth floor there was noise, and he realized that the building was collapsing. Monteagudo was afraid of crushing him. “I thought it was collapsing like a domino effect”, He said.

“I was afraid of being run over,” she said, adding: “I kept screaming:”God help me, please help me. I want to see my children, I want to see my grandchildren, I want to live, please help me, God‘”, He said.

When Monteagudo finally escaped through a door, he had ankle-deep water and cables were floating beside him. He met a security guard. “He said ‘mother, mother, come on, it’s an earthquake'”said Monteagudo. “I said, ‘No, it’s not an earthquake, it’s the falling building.’

There was a wall he had to climb, then a chasm several meters wide. The security guard urged her to jump. “But I couldn’t jump,” he said. “I saw a piece of a column, I put my foot on it, I climbed and I found myself in the middle of the street.” He exited the building and headed for the visitor parking lot.

Monteagudo thought about all the things he had lost: wedding photos, first communion photos, children’s birthday photos. “I lost everything, I have no pastHe said. “But I say thank goodness I’m still alive.”

Monteagudo thinks a lot about an 80-year-old woman who lived across the hall and greeted her when she moved in months ago. “I thought she was with her son that day. I called his daughter-in-law. He disappeared. They didn’t find it, ”he said. “I feel so bad. I told them I felt so bad. I cry a lot, I feel so guilty.”

She also feels angry. “A lot of people knew there were problems in this building. It’s a disaster that someone could have stopped before it happened, ”he said.

And then there is the impact. “I can’t believe it,” Monteagudo said, rubbing an amulet of the Virgin of Guadalupe that hangs from a necklace, one of the few personal effects he has left. “I can’t believe it. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me now.”

(The Washington Post. Por Lori Rozsa)

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