Florida Building Collapse: Nine Declared Dead as the Hunt for Survivors Persists

Nine people were reported dead on account of the collapsed Florida building. Authorities confirm that the death count has risen to nine after the collapse of an apartment block in Florida.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said four of the recovered bodies had been identified, although about 150 other people still remain unaccounted for. “Our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can,” she told reporters.

A Part of the building collapsed early in the morning on Thursday while a lot of the occupants slept. The major cause of the collapse has not yet been discovered.

An engineer’s report from 2018 was shown to the public on Saturday, it highlighted “a major error” in the original design of the seafront Champlain Towers in the town of Surfside, near Miami. It showed that the fault prevented water from draining away from the base of the building.

President Joe Biden also tweeted that he had offered to give assistance as needed to Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

Teams have been making use of machines, drones, and even specially trained dogs in their attempts at finding other survivors. Rescue efforts were briefly disturbed on Saturday when a fire started underneath the rubble.

Ms. Levine Cava said the death count had increased after the emergency workers searching the rubbles found another body on Saturday. Four out of the nine confirmed fatalities have been identified – including the mother of a young boy who was pulled out of the rubbles alive on Thursday.

The Miami-Dade mayor informed us that the continued search efforts had also helped them discover some human remains, but he warned that the process involved in identifying these victims was very difficult and they would have to rely on DNA testing.

The missing people included Israelites and even some Latin Americans, according to the reports. Paraguay’s foreign ministry said six of its nationals had been declared missing, including one of the country’s first lady’s siblings.

Florida Building Collapse: What were the issues raised by 2018’s report?

An engineer, Frank Morabito, said the unavailability of a proper drainage system was a systemic issue and it stemmed from a flaw in the development of the original contract documents.

He termed what he called major structural damage to the concrete platform found beneath the swimming pool deck.

“The failed waterproofing is causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas,” he wrote. “Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”

The engineer also made reference to “abundant cracking… of columns, beams and walls” located in the garage.

His report didn’t hint that the 40-year-old Florida building was at any imminent risk of collapse at the time but he suggested that the concrete repairs be carried out in a timely fashion.

It is not yet clear if the problems mentioned contributed in any way to the structural failure. Champlain Towers had been due to undergo a multi-million dollar reconstruction this year.

A statement was later issued on Twitter by the Morabito Consultants, which confirmed that they had indeed written the report in 2018.

“At the time of the building collapse, roof repairs were underway, but concrete restoration had not yet begun,” this statement said. The was not into performing construction works but it said it was invited in by the condominium association in June 2020 to make plans for a repair and restoration plan.

Governor DeSantis has promised that authorities will figure out what exactly happened stating that “anybody affected by this directly wants that answer”.