This archive report was first published on 25 June 2021.
Florida Building Collapse Leaves Four Dead, 159 Unaccounted For ¶
On June 24, 2021, a 12-story oceanfront apartment building in Surfside, Florida partially collapsed, leaving four people dead and 159 unaccounted for.
Rescue teams scoured the rubble, guided by sound, in a desperate search for survivors. The building, Champlain Towers South, was occupied by a mix of full-time and seasonal residents and renters, and officials stressed it was unclear how many people were actually inside at the time of the collapse.
President Joe Biden sent a message of support to the families, calling it a 'tough, tough time.' Governor Ron DeSantis said the families deserved 'a definitive explanation for how this could have happened.'
Completed in 1981, Champlain Towers was due to be recertified this year in line with Miami-Dade county safety regulations, and was undergoing construction work on its roof as part of that process.
According to a study led by Florida International University environment professor Shimon Wdowinski, the site showed signs of land subsidence in the mid-1990s.
Structural engineers would collect vast quantities of data on design plans and construction methods, take samples of steel and concrete, look at signs of corrosion, examine the foundation, and try to detect any unusual event before the collapse.
