Five days after the collapse of a condo in Surfside, Florida, 150 people are still unaccounted for, and eleven have been confirmed dead. While viewers around the world were stunned to see video footage of the seemingly sudden crumbling of the twelve story building, engineers had expressed concern about the condo’s “major structural damage” nearly three years before the deadly collapse.
During a 2018 inspection, a consultant recommended repair work on the pool deck and underground parking garage, which had “abundant cracking and crumbling.” Without such repairs, the deterioration would only “expand exponentially.” Yet weeks after this report, residents of the building were told that it was safe.
What the report also made clear was that the correct repairs would be “extremely expensive.” And while the condo board had taken out $12 million in loans, the recommended repairs had never been made. Due to this negligence the price was raised even higher – people paid with their lives. This horrific and deadly accident should have never happened, and it could have been prevented if safety in the face of “major structural damage” had been taken seriously.
