The mayor of SurfSide, Florida, said he was working on a plan to temporarily house residents of an apartment complex built by the same company that built the complex that collapsed Thursday.
But the mayor said he is not yet ready to order the evacuation of the building located a few meters away from the collapsed complex. He has ordered the inspection of the North Champlain Towers located off the Atlantic coast, as well as the collapsed building.
Both complexes were built in 1981. Meanwhile, research continues on the collapsed complex. So far five deaths have been confirmed and 156 remain missing. Search-and-rescue operations were hampered by a fire that broke out deep in the rubble.
Nearly three years before the building collapsed in northern Miami, an engineering firm had estimated that $ 9 million worth of repairs were needed, according to email communications just made public.
The issuance of the 2018 documents follows the release of another document from the same firm where it is stated that the pool on the ground floor of the building was located on a concrete layer that had “major structural damage” and required serious repair work. The same report mentions “numerous cracks and abrasions” in the concrete retaining columns, beams and garage walls.
The report does not mention immediate danger from these damages and it is not yet clear whether these problems were the cause of the building collapse.
By the time of the demolition none of the repairs mentioned in the report had been made.
A number of lawsuits have been filed so far, including a case filed hours after the collapse that accuses the apartment owners’ association of negligence and seeks damages.
