Miami building collapse latest updates: Death toll in Surfside Champlain Towers rises to 12

Champlain Towers South board president Jean Wodnicki told residents in May there was “no way for our current budget to absorb all these hits’, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The 29 May letter said “surprises” like Covid-19 rules, insurance premium rises, deficits and 40-year-expences strained finances.

She said hallway renovations and 40-year renovations would be combined into one project to schedule work cost-effectively and efficiently, while describing “the work our building needs so badly”.

The death toll at the Surfside condo collapse has risen to 12.

The discovery of a new victim was confirmed by Miami-Dade mayor Daniella Levine Cavine at a press conference right now. She said they were conducting an audit of the missing persons and victims, and would more clearly label figures for more accurate figures.

She said 149 remain missing.

The president of the Champlain Towers South Condominium wrote to residents on 9 April that structural problems had “gotten significantly worse”.

Jean Wodnicki wrote in the “Dear Neighbours” letter – first reported by The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, that the longer residents wait to pay for major work the higher the $15.5m bill would become, according t

Quoting a board spokesperson, The Associated Press confirmed the letter noted that damage identified in the 2018 engineering report had gotten significantly worse.

“A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now,” the letter said. “Indeed the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection… the concrete deterioration is accelerating.”

Ms Wodnicki wrote that it was impossible to know the extent of the damage to the underlying rebar until the concrete is opened, but that oftentimes damage is more extensive than can be determined by inspection of the surface.

“I acknowledge that we are talking about a huge project and a very large assessment. The longer we wait, the higher the bids will be,” she added.

As the dust settles on the wreckage of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, survivors of the building’s collapse are speaking out about their narrow escapes and guilt over outliving neighbors.

“Why did it happen that I wasn’t there in my apartment?” Jay Miller, a retired college professor who owned a condo in the building, told The Washington Post.

Mr Miller, 75, says he usually travels up to his Philadelphia home at the end of June, but this summer made the trip a little earlier. The change of plans – which he says he made randomly – ultimately his life.

“That was the place I usually would have been,” he told the Post. “I wasn’t there, and I made a decision to go away.”

The Independent’s Nathan Place reports.

Antonio and Gladys Lozan spent their lives together.

As rescuers dug through the rubble of the Surfside condo collapse, they found the husband and wife together until the end, side by side, in the bed they shared on the ninth floor of the Champlain Towers South.

They would have celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary next month. Instead, their son Sergio told CBS Miami, their two children, seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren will attend their funeral.

“I was told they were in bed together. That’s the end of the romantic story,” he said.

“My dad would say to my mom, ‘If you die, I don’t even know how to fry an egg, I’m gonna die.’ My mom would say, if my dad would die, ‘I don’t know how to pay the bills.’ I always told my mom, ‘Don’t worry, I will do it. But they died together. It’s not fair, being crushed, being destroyed, not fair.”

Florida prosecutors have begun steps to investigate the collapse of the Surfside condo in Miami.

State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle told The Miami Herald she would bring the matter before grand jurors soon.

“I am going to urge them to take a look at it,” she said. “Whether they do or not, it’s completely their decision.”

Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference that she fully supports such an investigation, according to the Associated Press.

About a block from the Miami-area beachfront condominium tower that collapsed sits its sister building, erected a year later by the same company, using the same materials and a similar design. It has faced the same tides and salty air.

This has made some residents of Champlain Towers North worried enough to leave, though many have remained, saying they are confident their almost 40-year-old, 12-story building is better maintained.

Most residents who are staying took the position of Philip and Nora Zyne, who remain in their fifth-floor condo. The Zynes bought their condo 12 years ago, and have lived there full time for six. They have several friends and acquaintances who lived in the south tower and remain missing.

Zyne said Monday that he’s seen numerous inspectors in his building since the collapse.

“I’ve never seen any major structural issues” in the north building, said Philip Zyne, an attorney. “I’m not worried at all right now. I do want to get a full structural engineering and forensic examination done.”

Salomon Gold, who spent 10 years as the condo association president for the north tower and 20 on the board, is convinced the building is safe, saying he and the other board members never skimped on maintenance. He compared the building collapse to airplanes: Just because one crashes doesn’t mean others of that same make and model will.

“We are in good shape,” said Gold, 89. The current condo association president, Naum Lusky, declined comment. – Associated Press

After five days of searching for survivors without results, the mayor of the Florida town where a residential building collapsed says there’s still hope.

“Nobody is giving up hope here. Nobody is stopping,” Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said on Tuesday. “We are dedicated to getting everyone out of that pile of rubble.”

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has suggested that impacts linked to the climate crisis may have played a role in the devastating condo building collapse in Florida.

“Obviously, we don’t know fully, but we do know that the seas are rising. We know that we’re losing inches and inches of beaches, not just in Florida but all around,” Sec Granholm said.

Louise Boyle has the report.

Firefighters are reportedly collecting toys found in the rubble of the Surfside, Miami, building collapse and adding them to a makeshift memorial for missing children.

The items include a Winnie the Pooh bear with a red shirt that reads “Baby’s 1st Pooh Bear”.

“Yesterday, I saw a group of five firefighters. They walked toward the memorial, and they were holding toys,’’ a man told CBS12 News at the scene of the makeshift memorial.

“And they placed the toys, and they had tears in their eyes,’’ said the man, who was unidentified.

“It’s incredible, it’s just so powerful to think that maybe one of those toys belonged to a child who is unfortunately no longer with us,’’ he added.