Fogbow

Miami Beach condo building evacuated in abundance of caution after building damage found

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 62123.html

Firefighters ordered residents to evacuate a low-rise condominium complex in Miami Beach Saturday night after a building inspector flagged a flooring system failure in a vacant unit and damage to exterior walls.

Miami Beach firefighters responded to a call about a vacant unit in the 1600 block of Lenox Avenue at about 7:30 p.m. when they summoned a building inspector to examine the building.

“In an abundance of caution, the Building Official has required the vacating of this building until further information can be obtained,” Melissa Berthier, a Miami Beach spokeswoman, said in an email.

Damn those unelected gummint regulators impeding entrepreneurial innovation.

This will become another example of privitized profits and socialized losses.

Rules. These free enterprise buildings wouldn't have been built in the first place if those gubmint rules were in effect and enforced. Think of all the jobs that wouldn't have happened.

Death toll rises to 24; timetable moved up to demolish remaining portion of Surfside tower

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 53998.html

With a tropical storm headed toward South Florida, the upright portion of the doomed Champlain Towers South building will be demolished within days to allow rescue crews to eventually resume searching the site safely, officials said.

The decision meant that by Saturday evening, rescue teams halted their efforts to find survivors and bodies, as scientists investigating the collapse scrambled to take last-minute 3D measurements of the standing structure, and demolition crews drilled holes into the concrete columns in the first and second floors.

The hope: that crews can detonate explosives placed in those holes by Monday morning — just ahead of powerful winds delivered by Tropical Storm Elsa.

“We will begin search and rescue on any sections that are safe to access as soon as we are cleared,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a Saturday evening press briefing.

The frantic work added another level of drama to the unprecedented search-and-rescue effort more than a week after the Champlain Towers South building collapsed in the middle of the night, killing at least 24 people and leaving over 120 still missing.

Condo Collapse: Owners Fear For Missing Surfside Pets As Impending Demolition Draws Near

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/07/03/s ... emolition/

Animal advocates are concerned that animals are left behind in the portion of Champlain Tower South that did not collapse and they are in need of rescue. Dahlia Canes, an animal advocate, said animals who are scared, hide and without an expert going in there’s a little hope. County officials say they checked and did not find any animals.

“We definitely searched the building, so they were primary and secondary searches of the building. There was also a tertiary search, so we went to that building three times, which is remarkable, and none of the times did we find pets or anything going through,” said Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky.

Estiveo wrote: ↑Sun Jul 04, 2021 10:50 pm

That tweet got deleted. Here's another:

I'm surprised by my reaction.... The videos are very sad.

Question: were the tenants given time to move their belongings out, or was everything lost?

bill_g wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:10 am Question: were the tenants given time to move their belongings out, or was everything lost?

I seem to remember seeing an article that said vehicular traffic had been banned around the site, so I'm guessing that only what could be carried out by hand was saved. Not sure how they could move furniture down several floors and then away to whatever distance to get it to a truck with everyone in the complex trying to do it in a matter of hours anyway.

There was a lot of concern about pets left behind. First Responders tried to go back and find them but many, like cats for example, wouldn't come out when called.

bill_g wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:10 am Question: were the tenants given time to move their belongings out, or was everything lost?

I think all was lost that didn't get carried out by the residents the night of the collapse. I dont think they were ever allowed back in. It's possible as the site gets sifted through, there will be recovery of personal effects, which is what the rescue workers had been doing on the initial collapsed section.

ETA:
https://www.winknews.com/2021/07/04/dem ... orm-fears/

Some residents had pleaded to return to their homes one last time before the demolition to retrieve belongings left in haste, but were denied. Others wondered about the pets left behind, even though officials said they found no signs of animals after making three final sweeps, including the use of drones to peer into the abandoned structure.

From initial reports, I have to give props to the demolition company. Everything I read said implosion demos typically take weeks, if not months, to plan and execute. Whatever workers went in and drilled the holes to place the explosives in were doing extraordinarily dangerous work. OTOH they probably didn't need to place as many explosives as they would for a normal building given the existing bad structural integrity. Still, I am impressed with their work.

Families told rescue phase in Surfside collapse is ending. It’s careful recovery now.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/ ... 20078.html

As the 14th day of searching came to a close, families and loved ones were informed during a private briefing that the search and rescue effort for live victims in the rubble that was once Champlain Towers South is coming to an end.

Fire authorities said Wednesday there is no longer hope that there are any survivors of the June 24 Surfside collapse.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief of Operations Ray Jadallah told families that the announcement was “some of the hardest news I’ve ever had to deliver in my professional career.”

Slim Cognito wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 9:22 am There was a lot of concern about pets left behind. First Responders tried to go back and find them but many, like cats for example, wouldn't come out when called.

I can't stand to hear this.

With all the noise and smashing about of putting in the explosives, I imagine a lot of the pets would have fled the building. But ya, some wont have.

I'm so happy and so sad at the same time.

Wow just awesome!

I'm not really surprised. Any cat owner/lover knows they can contort their bodies into and outa most any situation.

Even little things like that can really warm you up.

Miami-Dade courthouse evacuated after building inspection finds 'safety concerns'
The review was prompted by the partial collapse of a Miami Beach-area condo building.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mi ... d_nn_tw_ma

An engineer’s report recommended floors 16 and above be closed to staff at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse "while repairs are swiftly completed," according to a joint statement from Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Chief Judge Nushin Sayfie, and Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin.

The courthouse, completed in 1928, is where most civil cases are heard. The 28-story building also houses some administrative offices.

Court staff had recently returned to the building after working remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the evacuation, court operations will go back to a remote format until repairs to address safety concerns are finalized, officials said. Specific details about what repairs are needed were not disclosed, but officials added that the courthouse’s basement would also undergo an inspection to determine whether additional repairs are also needed there.

Crestview Towers Residents Get 15 Minutes To Retrieve Essential Items From Evacuated North Miami Beach Condo

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/07/10/e ... ami-beach/

“This is just too much for me,” said an emotional Vanessa Figueroa as she was allowed to return to the 4th floor and pick up some blankets, shoes and clothing from the apartment she shared with her fiancé and mother and father at the 10-story, 156-unit Crestview Towers.



“We have heard a lot about the building and the city and the condominium association board but nobody is talking about us, the residents,” said Figueroa.

North Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Rand told D’Oench that police helped more than 110 families from the building between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Chief Richard Rand personally escorted members of 12 families to their apartments.

I didn't know her, but a local woman from here had just moved in there a month ago. They have found her husband's body, but not hers yet, the last I heard.

We followed this on our trip. Really, horribly sad.

Hubs just found a guy on Youtube named Jeff Ostroff analyzing publicly available videos on the Surfside condo collapse. Not sure what his creds are but he seems to know something about construction. He's not telling you FOR SURE, THIS IS THE REASON, it fell, but he's analyzing videos that people took pre-collapse to document problems that needed to be fixed. He is trying to pinpoint the initial point of failure, but he prefaces everything with, "I believe" or "it's my educated guess and I may be wrong." This link is mostly about a year old video, taken by a woman who was considering purchasing a unit but, I'm guessing, was scared away by what she saw in the parking garage. Very interesting. Also horrifying.

Ostroff's video is about 40 minutes long, but jaw-dropping. There were freaking STALAGTITES growing down from the ceiling. People had car covers on their cars parked in a covered garage. There were huge cracks, peeling paint, orange cones, pooling water. A second, shorter video from 2018 (starts about 33 minutes in, videoed to present to the HOA) shows an electrical box covered in rust from the water dripping overhead off a big pipe covered in mastic.

(shudders)



About 27 minutes into the video, he shows a very short clip of another video taken by a tourist across the street seven minutes before the collapse, I think he said a few hours before the collapse