On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the Surfside condominium disaster, a new federal report reveals that the condominium collapse did not happen in an instant, but was rather the result of a slow-motion chain reaction that started weeks before the tragedy.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced Monday that the structural failure started earlier in June 2021 at two critical garage columns beneath the pool deck of Champlain Towers South. Those initial failures quietly shifted deadly loads over three weeks across the 12-story building that was already severely compromised by original design flaws.
The five-year anniversary of the collapse is Wednesday, June 24.
“When building structures are designed and built to required codes and standards, they have margins against failure, meaning they should be able to support much more load than they are expected to bear,” investigators Judith Mitrani-Reiser and Glenn Bell said in the investigation’s briefing.
‘“In the case of Champlain Towers South, however, these margins against failure were too narrow from the start.”
The June 24, 2021 collapse, which occurred at 1:22 a.m. and was caught on video, killed 98 people just north of Miami Beach, prompting the Florida Legislature to radically overhaul building safety laws. There are now mandatory, statewide structural inspections, requiring aging high-rises to undergo strict “milestone” inspections.
The Legislature also mandated a Structural Integrity Reserve Study, eliminating a long-abused loophole that allowed condo boards to underfund financial reserves for critical structural repairs such as roofs, load-bearing walls, and foundations.
Warning signs appeared at pool deck, parking garage ahead of the Surfside collapse
According to the report, the building exhibited visible warning signs earlier in June 2021 as the pool deck slowly gave way, separating from a supporting wall.
To pinpoint the cause of the disaster, NIST experts systematically evaluated two dozen possible failure scenarios. The team analyzed physical evidence, reviewed historical records, performed materials testing and geotechnical studies, and conducted extensive interviews with survivors.
“The fact that the building had stood for 40 years and then collapsed for no immediately apparent reason made the investigation particularly challenging,” Mitrani-Reiser and Bell said.
Bell also listed other factors investigators ruled out, such as vibrations from nearby construction, foundation failure and hurricane and storm surge effects.
In a video released with the report, Mitrani-Reiser gave a recount of the building’s final minutes as the columns in the garage began to fail.
“Several eyewitnesses reported hearing concerning sounds approximately eight to nine minutes prior to the tower collapsing,” she said. “These sounds, heard from various locations in the building, are described as crackling sounds or sounds associated with building renovations.”
The final report cites widespread deviations in the building’s original 1981 construction and design, which failed to meet the building codes and standards of the day. A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge previously approved a $1.02 billion class-action settlement for the survivors and the families of the 98 victims.
Billion-dollar legal settlement offers Surfside families little comfort
The report arrives amid ongoing tension at the disaster site. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Dubai developer DAMAC Properties, which paid $120 million for the oceanfront property, has yet to sell a single unit in its proposed $1.6 billion luxury tower.
DAMAC has paused construction and is seeking a local partner after repeatedly butting heads with families of the deceased, who lobbied the developer unsuccessfully to incorporate a permanent memorial on the physical footprint of the collapse,
For some families of the victims, the federal report offered little solace or accountability.
“They came back with pretty much nothing,” Martin Langesfeld, whose sister Nicky Langesfeld died in the collapse, told WFOR-TV, the CBS affiliate in Miami. “It’s very insulting that they do this two days before the collapse commemoration, five years later. It would be different if they came back with some accountability.”
Families will gather for Surfside collapse remembrance ceremony
On Wednesday, family members will gather at the Surfside site for a remembrance ceremony.
“I don’t think we will ever have a conclusive answer with the way things have been run,” Langesfeld told the station.
John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Surfside collapse was slow-motion failure weeks in making, report says
Reporting by John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida / Florida Today
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By John Pacenti, USA Today Network-Florida | USA TODAY Network
