Reunification Hotline 305-614-1819
Champlain Towers is a 12 story condominium building located in the small, beachside town of Surfside, Florida, about six miles north of Miami Beach. Miami-Dade County police said 53 residents have been identified and located safely; however, as many as 99 people are reported missing. There were about 55 units in the tower that collapsed.
The collapse happened at approximately 1:30am this morning.
The building is 40-years old and is located in an area very familiar to CTH. This is an affluent community with many Jewish residents. Our thoughts and prayers are with the missing and their families. CCTV from a neighboring complex shows the center of the tower gave way first, with the rest of the structure collapsing into a pile of rubble. The cause of the collapse is unknown.
.
Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer said “the building was undergoing a required 40-year recertification to ensure its structural integrity, and that the building’s roof was being redone. She added that residents told her a building inspector had visited Champlain Towers on Wednesday, but she did not know what the inspector found. It is unknown if any construction activity contributed to the disaster.” (Miami Herald Article Link)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis arrived on scene this afternoon and gave a press conference:
.
This is a horrific collapse. The scale of this is almost unfathomable.
A building doesn’t just spontaneously fall down, it has to have a ….nudge
…or a sink hole…
LOLz, right, THAT MUST have been THE causative issue!
Troll alert
That was my 1st tho’t, but looking at the video reminds me of the Towers collapsing in NYC.
Controlled demolition.
Demolition engineers will look at this tragedy and know the answer quickly.
Similar to the Sampoong Department Store collapse in S.Korea.
… Sampoong was attributed to payoffs by the building owners / builders to local officials to “overlook” shoddy construction and materials. Not like the case in Florida, as this building has been standing for decades.
They also decided to add an additional story without any redesign of the foundation or supporting structures, and for good measure put a large swimming pool on that final level.
The day of the collapse the building managers discussed how to address the clearly impending failure, concluding that they would be safer just going home, but leaving the building open in order to save face.
I was in country when that happened, also when the Han River Bridge fell down, and various other oddities convinced me that the predominant natural disaster in Korea is gravity.
If you watch the videos, the twin towers collapsed from the top down, while a controlled demolition is from the bottom up.
From what I have read today, this may have been caused by a sinkhole. Apparently it was built in a marshy area. Also, a new building was recently erected close by and may have destabilized the ground under the Champlain Towers.
Actually, demolitions are usually a combination of both.
Wouldn’t an earth event such as a sinkhole or some other foundation weakening process been noticeable before a total collapse? Until that issue is resolved, how can any of those other large beachfront buildings be safe?
Not always. Underground geological formations can support weight up to a point where any single failure (causing movement) in a complex subsoil formation can cause a chain of rapidly successive failures, each decreasing the ground’s ability to support the building’s weight. Hopefully a study will reveal underground failures that resulted in the building’s foundation(s) to collapse and in turn collapsed the structure that was anchored onto that foundation.
Reports of flashes as the building collapsed would be expected as high voltage feeder wires which were trimmed to fit (no slack) were forceful pulled away from load distribution boxes, switches, light fixtures etc.
Maybe they used beach sand that weakened the structure over time. They have tons of concrete laying on the ground that can be compression tested. That should be able to be determined quickly.
I would also wonder about the condition of the pilings the structure is built on. That would take more time to get an answer.
Don’t overlook the long-term effect of airborne salt water mist on (possibly) porous concrete containing steel rebar. Building codes in FL were not anywhere near as strict as they are today, when that place went up.
Yes, if that wasn’t addressed in oceanfront multiple story building codes by 1960 then someone really was inviting disaster.
This has been my theory. Concrete density during pours in 1981 are nothing like what is required today. Porous concrete could have been impaired by salt saturated moisture over 40 years.
However Nimrodman has linked to a story that claims the building was slowly sinking over many years and determined to be unsafe a year ago.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/06/24/building-collapse-miami-structure-had-been-sinking-into-earth/7778631002/
.
USA Today tries to allude to climate change. :-^
Actually, it bears remembering that much of South Florida is built at the water table. The ground is reclaimed from swamp, and mostly shifty sand. This isn’t the granite rock that Manhatten sits on and in the past 60 years the amount of building and paving, including highrise building, has been phenomenal.
An earth event maybe like the Navy doing test just a few days ago near that area causing a 3.9 earthquake? Like that kind of earth event? Seems like they should be doing inspections on others in vicinity to make sure they aren’t damaged also. Just a thought. Prayers to all the families involved in this disaster.
Another possibility?
In all the accident reports I read while in the Air Force each one was a chain of failures and oversights and multiple contributing influences, this looks equally as complex, and human, as any of those.
Sure. Certainly must be considered as a potential contributing factor that might depend on the substrata comm0n to the two sites.
That’s a strong possibility in FL.
Kumala’s sink hole ?
Virtually the entire state of Florida is built on sand, after all . . .
The scary thing now is … “how many other buildings are like this?”
“it has to have a ….nudge”
TV news mentioned “construction in the neighborhood”
If they were driving pilings for another building, that shaking could induce sand liquefaction (to the extent the collapsed building was underlain mainly by sand) or sinkhole collapse (to the extent the foundation was in hard limestone)
Collapsed Miami condo was sinking into Earth since 1990s, researchers say
“sinking at alarming rate of 2 mm a year
USA Today article behind a subscription firewall, look for secondary coverage
Researcher: High-rise that collapsed had been sinking at …
The 12-story beachfront condominium tower in Miami-Dade County that collapsed early Thursday morning was built in 1981 on reclaimed wetlands and a Florida International University researcher told USA Today that the building had been sinking at an alarming rate.
Land around the Florida condo that collapsed was showing …
Land around the Florida condominium that collapsed early Thursday morning in Surfside, Florida , showed signs of sinking in the 90s, according to a 2020 study. The study, published in the journal …
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/land-around-the-florida-condo-that-collapsed-was-showing-signs-of-sinking-according-to-a-2020-study/ar-AALp3eT
Here we go! The money shot for the Green New STEAL.
“Wdowinski found that land that was subsiding was more likely to experience more serious effects of sea-level rise due to the climate crisis.”
Friggin agenda-propelled a$$hats. Never let a good crisis go to waste; too bad some people lost their lives; we get to demand an end to fracking on Miami Beach now.
If they are really worried about climate change and rising sea levels, then why would Hussein buy the Robin Masters estate (Magnum P.I. TV series) in Hawaii? Beach front property… pissed me off cause he leveled all the buildings.
Or on Martha’s Vineyard. Why would Zuckerburg build on Hawaii as well.
Kudos
Sinkholes in Fla (and elsewhere) are tragic, but nothing new:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/video-shows-inside-look-at-sinkhole-that-killed-florida-man
So, in 40 years it sank 3.25 inches?
I’m no engineer, but I’m not really “alarmed” by that. Should I be?
If only one part was sinking that would put enormous torque on the horizontal concrete.
I would think so.
yeah, if you’ve got a high-rise building on it you should be
There is a 20 story condo in San. Fran. doing just that & still occupied the last I heard.
Yes you should be concerned.
According to my estimate it will be completely gone in about 18,000 years.
What happened to Twelve Years (TM)?
Don’t know exactly what you are asking but with the numbers given it sank a little less than an inch in twelve years.
I was just messing the the trademarked Twelve Years To Apocalypse bit we get fed all the time.
I just hope we have time to evacuate.
Given the easily lying lame stream media is this the story they want/need to be out there???? It looks like a demolition implosion– one has to wonder given the international make up of some of the familes if this was not intentional— it’s all so sad for those living there
TV report mentioned construction NEXT DOOR
Went down just like WTC 7
w/o the fire
w/o “the fire”
Like WTC Bldg. 7, maybe all it needs is an (((owner))).
The CCTV footage would seem to indicated it was fairly windy. Also, the CCTV camera itself seemed to be effected; the camera was not stationary. (Appeared to be attempting to pan right)
The buildings were the tallest in the area and appeared to have collapsed in a direction similar to that of the wind.
The wind “may have been” your “Nudge”, Rooster.
Add the possibility of QCM’s sink hole under the structure….
Guessing…
?
I’m a retired mechanical engineer. A static structure standing at rest, will remain at rest until perturbed by a sufficient forcing function. In addition, if a sinkhole was the cause, there should have been 45 degree cracks all over that building preceding the fall, and nobody has mentioned cracks being noticed. I’m trying to find another incident where a building collapsed in the still of night, I got nothing….
I am not a mechanical engineer, Rooster.
My guess is an uninformed one, I admit.
In your opinion, considering the collapse happened at 1:30 AM, could those 45 degree cracks have appeared during the late night hours and no one was around to notice?
I hope we learn the truth, this is a tragedy, but its a odd incident. We need more data….
I agree, Rooster.
?
At the news conference they did mention the people were complaining about cracks.
Really? If that can be confirmed it would help….a lot
There are major stress marks left on the standing building at an upward angle on each floor where it ripped off.
Thanks rooster. I am always amazed at the wealth of knowledge here at CTH.
The CCTV camera is not moving. The handheld camera that’s videoing off of the CCTV replay monitor is moving.
TY, Trygve.
That would explain it.
What company or connected affiliates constructed that building? Look up cases of buildings suddenly collapsing in different countries over a span of years for a common connection.
The Navy was off the Florida coast testing explosions with a new ship. The explosions caused a 3.9 Earthquake, felt in 100 mile radius.
Did they do more testing?
I am so suspicious about most events including tragedies that it would not surprise me if there were nefarious efforts to hammer Florida. Sad to say.
Whew! I thought I was the only one suspicious! I wouldn’t put it past the bad guys to take this tower down if they thought it might damage DeSantis (or Trump).
Same……sad that we have to think like that!?
It is also largely Jewish from everything I have been hearing today.
HANLON’S RAZOR: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
God, please protect them. Raise them from the rubble. Godspeed to those helping.
And, to all, please keep politics out of this.
Pray!!!
Let’s hope and pray that evil politics had nothing to do with this situation.
Gunner, your reaction is the one all of us should have had. We should all ask God to save as many people as possible.
Saw that this morning. Don’t know why it is moving so slowly in the news cycle.
This is not normal. Not common. BIG answers are needed.
Missing are reports of loud noises such as explosives. It’s very very weird…
I pray Desantis keeps the Feds away from the investigation otherwise the truth will never come out if they had anything to do with it.
That surveillance video reminds me far too much of 9/11. But it also reminds me of a sink hole.
Yep. One of the residents tried to escape but couldn’t due to rising water levels. Some people estimate that the elevator shaft footings were on a sinkhole which caved in and pulled the building down with it.
The FIB is already there. :-((
Why?
Someone saw a noose in the underground garage.
Oh, so many more thumbs up for that answer!!
You mean the kgb??? ^^
To fib?
Just caught a snippet of a statement before station break that there was a report last year that the building “is sinking at an alarming rate” – sounds like a foundation engineering evaluation was done
perhaps sinkhole initiation of some sort
I didn’t catch that part but I also commented something similar in terms of how it fell. The lack of explosion doesn’t rule out thermite but it really reminded me of a sink hole.
But South Florida doesn’t get sink holes. To me it looks more like a demolition. I’ve been around sink holes in central Fla and I have never seen a building or house pulverized like that.
Wondered the same thing.
.
Right. Seems like a sinkhole would just topple the building over. Unless something very weird (above, someone commented that the elevator shaft in a sinkhole could have pulled the rest of the building down like this.)
Nighthawk “But South Florida doesn’t get sink holes.”
Maybe they are uncommon or rare in South Florida, but this website has this to say on that:
FAQ Q7: Is there a safe area of Florida in which to live with no chance of sinkholes?
Answer: Technically, no. Since the entire state is underlain by carbonate rocks, sinkholes could theoretically form anywhere. However, there are definite regions where sinkhole risk is considerably higher.
From:
https://floridadep.gov/fgs/sinkholes/content/sinkhole-faq
(For what it’s worth [if anything]… )
I’ve added a couple of internet articles near top of thread, I’m sure we’ll hear much more about this
Looks like a sink hole…note the cars in the photo with the swimming pool in the left foreground…some on their sides…note the marks on the support columns nearby where the parking deck was…before dropping down…the rest of the structure on the right looks like it has already sunken a bit and probably ready to collapse as well.
thx, QCM
I amplified on that aspect elsewhere on the thread and included a photo
yes, very much in agreement, I had read your comment before adding my material but forgot it in the meantime
looks like 6 to 8 feet of subsidence stripping those columns down to bare concrete with the painted portion above
Thanks Nim, agree with your analysis as well.
Someone else opined that concrete spalling may be at play.
I think this may be a contributing cause, but not the root cause.
Root cause, based on damage to the pool area (note exposes columns), parking area and the remainder of the severely damaged portion of the building still standing (which also looks to have sunk about a foot relative to the rest of the structure, note the slanted floor slabs about midway along the damaged wing of the building) looks to be sinkhole.
On page 2, search for treeper Forbest
He’s a heavy foundation contractor and claims that there’s a below-ground parking garage that the upper level parking surface and pool deck are caving down into
It’s apparent in the bottom photo that Sundance has added since first posting, save the image and open up with a photo viewer so you can zoom in a lot
Forbest points out that you can see white columns poking up above the former pool deck and how the back of the deck has collapsed and scraped down from the white support columns of the still-standing building
https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/SF-s-sinking-Millenium-Tower-to-finally-get-fixed-15439863.php
I know that sinkholes are not uncommon in Florida.
https://www.britannica.com/science/karst-geology
I am inclined to wait and see what turns up in the days to follow, before I come up with any particular conclusions.
Although usually they are in the Orlando area.
I believe they can happen anywhere in FL.
Beware of media reports.
I have been watching/listening in to a lot of the coverage here:
https://watchnewslive.tv/cbs
This website is located in Miami, FL, so all of the alphabet channels are local to Miami.
If any Feds show up arrest them immediately.
Brings to mind the 1970’s novel by the great John D. MacDonald “Condominium”, which involved the collapse of a building like this.
I was just about to post that. I read it then – don’t think I still own a copy unfortunately.
It certainly seems prophetic now.
Prayers for all the victims, just horrible.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/937723.Condominium
Prayers for the men women, children and pets.
Go to bed and have this happen before you wake up.
Sobering.
What is left standing does not look very stable either. I hope the responders/rescue can get thru the rubble safely before the rest of that structure goes. Damn precarious.
Seems the visitors we are letting into our borders have experience they brought with them. It was expected considering who and what is coming into our country unchecked. One of many I would wager.
Especially considering how the “visitors” hate Jews.
Why does the video of the collapse start with it already falling and not just right before? It seems too selectively edited.
This one starts a split second earlier:
https://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/2021/06/24/chilling-surveillance-video-captures-surfside-condo-collapse/
You can clearly see some bright lights directly in the upper-middle of the center building. Squibs or just electrical connections shorting out?
uh – because every second is precious to TV news?
they edit for brevity all the time
It’s Miami Beach, Surfside
not Sunrise, which is part of Ft. Lauderdale
Update: 102 located, 99 still missing.
I think this is Debbie Wassermans’ district 23? Also heard on the news the FBI is going there now…
I wonder if the FBI has round trip tickets?
Gateway Pundit: Gen. Michael Flynn: “Something Is Going to Happen. They Must Create Noise Before the Arizona Audit. They’re Going to Have to Do Something” (VIDEO)
Let’s see, Debbie Wassermans’ district and Flynn’s warning of a False Flag operation to distract from the AZ audit.
What would the bookies in Vegas say, the odds are of this occurring without help from the FBI?
.
Wasserman is up here in Broward. Surfside is “north Miami Beach” off of AIA.
.
Well, she got into camera view with the presser group. Didn’t hear her say anything , but definitely saw her standing there, at the ready . . .
Now that the clown show FBI are there, you can be sure that they’ll get right to investigating suspicious nooses, white rage, and racism.
I saw a lady who was in the building and was rescued. She still hasn’t found her children….five or six of them???
: ( this will be a very sad day for some families.
Just heard on RINO News that there was a documented stability issue from the 90’s concerning portions of the building sinking.
Looks a lot like the Murrah Building in OK city.
I tho’t that as well. Part standing, part in a heap of debris and human lives.
Will they be blaming this on Climate Change, so they can pass their New Green STEAL?
…or blame the Russians.
Senseless and tragic. Prayers to the community, families, the injured and deceased.
☹️?????????
The Building Inspection process in South Florida is terrible to say the least. During the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew the destruction of thousands of single family homes built by Lennar were traced to the plywood sheaths on roofs not being nailed down so the hurricane wind peeled the roof off like opening a sardine can. An investigation by the state attorney determined that the mostly Cuban building Inspection department has been bribed in accordance with the tradition of La Mordita or the little bite as it is called in the Hispanic Culture of Cuba. We had a building inspector at our home in Palm Beach County a few years ago for the new hurricane doors and windows. They was very Hispanic and didn’t speak a word of English. How he had a state contractor’s license is a total mystery. He never checked the windows or doors at all muttering something to my wife and left. WE PASSED! Obviously the city government was more interested in Affirmative Action hiring someone competent for an $80,000 a year city job!
If you look at Surfside on a map, it’s almost at the north end of the island, and also close to the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder how many times this area has been hit by hurricanes in the last 40 years, how many times the building has been hit by high winds, where the water table is, and what the beach erosion has been. The building is so exposed, one wonders how deep the piles would have to go to provide any kind of stable footprint for a high rise.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=surfside+florida&t=brave&iax=images&ia=images&iaxm=maps
Another potential contributor is the use of seawater to mix concrete, which leads to the corrosion of rebar within the structure , and subsequent loss of structural strength.
Stress cracks in the foundation of the building would have shown up prior to collapse. So we are unlikely to know how this occurred until after an investigation.
And, human tampering could have triggered this destruction, too.
THAT was my other concern. I don’t understand why it takes 40 years to recertify a building sitting in hurricane alley. Seems to me there should be an annual at the very least, if certain conditions are met. Hurricanes and wind velocity.
Hi, from Miami, building was over 40 years old and was undergoing a structure review.
Maybe the reviews should be done ever 20 years.
This is so sad because things like that never happen here as far I can remember.
Sinkholes are more of a Central Florida problem, we get lots of hurricanes.
Sink holes don’t happen on a sand bar… they require a lack of water.
Sand bars along the ocean never run out of water.
No way a sink hole caused this. Get the geophysics and geology through your head: NO SINKHOLE.
Or course, the corporatist propaganda machine will run with this just as they ran with MH370’s “micro black hole”. This is what you get when you have people with a 7th grade “science” education making inane claims.
Sink holes may not happen, but if salt water enters a fresh water deposit, foundation infrastructure may become compromised.
Sand bars are also dynamic high energy environments and subject to severe stresses. It is possible the building has been structurally compromised for a long time and finally reached a fail state.
Yes, corrosion from salt water and stress/strain are distinct possibilities… but assuming this building was built properly to ’81 codes and maintained… what does this say about the rest of the buildings of the same age?
Woops!
Thats my guess keeler. Everything holds up to the moment something critical in the structural integrity fails. Then it’s simply a house of cards – just like the WTC. Most buildings are not designed to withstand severe angular forces caused by losing a key component of the supporting foundation which, in a building this close to the ocean, should have included many large concrete pilings/piers going down quite deep.
“…many Jewish residents…”
Hmmm?
Reminds me of the Murrah building in OKC.
There is ALOT more to this underreported story.
Murrah building was targeted because of the FBI and their murder of the Davidians exactly two years prior to that day. Nothing to do with Jewish people. The collapsed building in Florida does closely resemble the Murrah though.
The entire State of Florida is basically sand. That they build these tall buildings there in the first place has always struck me as a recipe for disaster. We’re probably lucky there have not been more like this. A shifting base is not a good place for tall buildings.
California is like that as well in many places.
No. California is not sand. It’s granite mountains and sedimentary soils.
We do have liquefaction due to earthquakes in some areas, but no sink holes.
I’m watching live footage of the rescue operation, with a view of the ground-level parking structure with cars tipped to the side
The main support columns are painted pink-beige
The first 8 feet or so is white, with rims of the parking-deck masonry clinging around the columns about 8 ft up
It looks pretty clear that there was a general land collapse (like from a sinkhole)
The land subsidence took that one wing down with it, with the other wing withstanding but with its support columns stripped down to bare concrete (the white)
I’ll look for a still photo showing same
But I’ll go with that diagnosis for now
Here’s a photo, a close-up would be better, but you can see the white columns over in that far corner where the cars are tipped up
51 is wrong. They just said 99 are missing, 102 located.
I’m viewing on my phone and can’t confirm, but the left side of the building you’re pointing out looks like it’s tipping to the right. Would definitely support your theory that the columns have been pulled from the ground. Also the far left “white” part looks like more than the middle, which it would need to be as well.
I’d be more inclined to propose differential subsidence than building “tipping”
That far column looks to be a local “low” in the garage floor and the subsided-land surface, the cars are tipping into it
If that building were tipping as much as that far-column center-column difference appears, I don’t think the building would still be standing, it would shear off
Okay. Forgive me if this is an inane question. Couldn’t the white on the columns simply be white paint? I’ve seen that done in parking lots under buildings in order to make the columns more visible.
Yes, absolutely. Just like it’s entirely possible this was a case of bad engineering or outdated infrastructure.
Sometimes we look at the crazy theories when the simple ones are reality. Honestly I think it’s far more likely it was a (natural) structural failure of some kind than a bombing. And Nimrodman is right that a “tilt” that severe would probably have brought the whole building down.
Those cars are likely tipped up because the side pressure of the collapse pushed the other cars over into them.
Land collapse from sink hole, or did the top floor of an underground parking garage give way? In many cities there are parking garages under buildings, even going down several floors below the water level. Is that the case here? From street map view those columns are painted beige down to pavement level. (Google has pinned the location on their map. Very easy to find).
yes, underground parking, Forbest talks about it on page 2 of the comments
the newer photo Sundance added to the article shows a head-on view of the ground level parking and cars, white support columns sticking up from below grade, and a collapsed pool-deck that was the roof of underground parking
download that photo and open up in an image viewer where you can zoom in a lot, it’s quite helpful
What’s the flashing bright light behind the last tower standing in that 1st 24 sec. vid?
Just looks weird.
I watched it numerous times before, and saw it myself only maybe on the 10th time. It happened in the roof area, so I am guessing electrical conduits up on top started breaking off and exploding as the rumbles and falling started. It is definitely something to be looked into.
With the HVAC systems typically located on the roofs this would be some serious voltage I imagine. Big sparking to be expected.
Yep.
Since there was no earthquake or violent storm, it’s hard to understand why this building suffered such a catastrophic failure and collapsed without warning.
Let’s just hope that the missing are located alive.
Most likely a long term structural problem that finally resulted in catastrophic failure.
The US Navy just conducted a test where they set off a huge explosion to test the integrity of a new aircraft carrier and caused a 3.9 magnitude earthquake on the Atlantic coast of Florida
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/uss-gerald-ford-shock-trials-earthquake-florida/
How long will it be before the MSM blames this on DeSantis or Trump? 3,2,1….
Lived in the FL Keys for many years. Houses in the middle Keys that were built in the late 70’s early 80’s are raised homes on concrete pillars. The concrete was mixed with saltwater, rusting out the internal rebar. One day I bumped into one of those concrete pillars with my shoulder, and a huge chunk of concrete broke off, exposing the rebar. Concrete mixed with saltwater, something to consider.
The Bay Bridge from SF to the East Bay… built with Chinese steel….
Sudden collapse sinkholes in South Florida are extremely rare. This area has some slow forming shallow sinks, but nothing like Central Florida
Hm. Slow forming shallow, sinks. That sounds like what was happening to the building.
But that’s the point of building deep piers. Huh?
A shallow slow forming sink would have caused the building to develop cracks a long time ago
Sinkhole?
IMO the people within this area might just want to contact PT as an experienced builder and ask him about an independent structural building engineer group who he might recommend to conduct an additional inspection of what caused the collapse.
We need to find out WHO owns the building and how much it was insured for.
And what the owner’s political connections are….in this area I’d guess Dem.
Probably a condo with dozens of different owners.
Most likely the people living there were not paying the monthly bills due to ongoing moratoriums as well, albeit some were probably owners outright.
These are individual condominiums.
Praying for the victims and the families waiting to hear whether or not their loved ones have died.
I’ve been there and I wouldn’t wish it on my enemies.
Praying God gives them strength and blesses those involved, especially the people working to rescue them.
??
It reminds me of building seven.
The building fell in freewill.
Undergoing a 40 year recertification.
Hmmm.
What a horrible thing to happen. My guess is that it happened because the ground here in florida is mostly sand. Unless massive amounts of concrete are poured into the foundation of a large building it may well collapse. My heart goes out to all those who have perished and to their families who are stricken with grief.
You don’t need nor want massive amounts of concrete.. the whole pad might tilt.
You want a well engineered system of very deep piers.
Sinkhole possibilities aside, the strobe-like flashes preceding each collapse suggest either electrical shorts or demolition charges. I’m inclined to believe the latter. Note the neat rubble accumulation INSIDE the property lines.
A sinkhole might account for the debris spread, as well as the inclined parking level and cars therein. But those flashes…
At point of collapse, roof mounted A/C units (see photo) had electrical connections severed. The severing while under electrical load would result in a violent display of flashes and sparks. Such A/C could be 480V.
No words.
May God comfort those looking for their missing loved ones.
Praying…
Should have been Congress, not innocent people.
Or the FBI building? And I can think of others.
F B Lie came to mind first but more good people still work there then in Congress .
Detonation/Dustification
They were doing heavy construction drilling nearby
https://mobile.twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1408162050589835266
whoops –
looks like they’re past the foundation pile-driving phase if they’ve got a couple stories up
not an expert, someone correct me pls if off the mark
although that doesn’t rule out disturbance of the neighboring collapsed condo during that earlier phase that might have pushed conditions toward failure that finally happened today
Any sort of Ground disturbance, rerouting of rain water, etc. could affect the other buildings in the area.
Reminiscent of the pictures of the Murrah Building after McVeigh finished with it.
If a sinkhole “roof” suddenly gave way, it doesn’t take much of a sudden drop to get unstoppable momentum started. I would bet 1-2 feet would do it. Once a fall starts, it just goes. That’s why the controlled demos only require a blow out of about 1 foot on support pillars. And a sinkhole could well have a minimum of 10-20 foot drop.
yes – buildings stay up under static load conditions for which they’re engineered (plus a safety factor multiplier of 3x, 4x, etc
change that to dynamic (in motion) loading forces and you get up in a region of force that they won’t withstand
The First Lady of Paraguay has a sister and other family missing in that collapse.
I know its Wikipedia, but geologically, this is what a sinkhole is
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karst
Florida is over all of this.
Looks like OKC…
Batista said: “Concrete spalling.” Here’s what it means.
Batista said that when salt water seeps into porous concrete, it causes the reinforced steel rods known as rebar in the support beams to rust and expand. In turn, the expansion breaks up the concrete and that weakens the beams.
It’s like “concrete cancer” spreading, said Batista, who worked on the planter boxes on the pool deck at the Champlain Towers South Condo building in 2017.
“Once the cancer spreads, the concrete breaks up and becomes weaker and weaker as time goes on,” Batista said. “My best guess is that’s what happened here. This building has a garage on the lower floors. If you have one column subjected to spalling, the no. 1 suspect here, it could fail. That one beam could bring down the whole building like a domino effect.”
Batista, who has worked as an engineer in South Florida for 30 years, said that older condo buildings, apartment complexes and hotels near the ocean routinely deteriorate from exposure to salt water and other elements.
Some might see this as a metaphor for the collapse of America.