Yeah, I'm not so sure. Everything's on a distribution, and this could have been a strange, fringe event, where something about the materials set improperly and started interacting with the salty breeze, all while the foundation was sinking at too fast a rate, and boom. One in 100,000 buildings that had the problem. That said... my bet is some cheap-ass subcontractors skimped during construction 40 years ago, planning it as a 30-yr building and not a 40+. But all the decision-makers are probably long dead at this point.
You know, on review, I'm hoping those were just flashes of electrical lines snapping/shorting. Cold comfort, but you want to hope people were mostly sleeping, felt one of those falling dream type of things and died quickly.
I'm already hearing stupid conspiracy theories from some of the local cult members in my area. They are talking about their dear leader's daughter and son-in-law living a couple of building down and how this was a message, failed attempt to eliminate them, or both.
I thought about that but the way that light came on you could just picture somebody clicking a light on to find out WTF was going on and then it shorting out. I can't imagine how all of that must have felt because there is no way I could have slept through that.
Sad. The upscale building was constructed in 1981 and several units are listed for sale on Zillow with an asking price of $600,000 or more. Experts said a collapse like this is rare and the cause will probably take years to unravel, barring something obvious such as a sinkhole that compromised the building’s foundation. The roof of the building was recently undergoing replacement and repairs of corroded concrete and rusted steel were being prepared, said Kenneth Direktor, an attorney for the building’s condominium association. Direktor said that the building was “thoroughly inspected” recently, part of a process in which buildings in Surfside must be recertified when they reach 40. A report on the inspection was completed in the past few months and submitted to town authorities, said Direktor, who also said he did not have a copy. The Post requested the report from the town, which acknowledged the request. Direktor said that the report’s findings were “fairly typical” for a building of its age and did not cast doubt on its structural integrity. “There was nothing in the report that would have indicated a life-safety concern,” he said. “Something horrible happened,” Direktor added. “This isn’t the result of hairline cracks in the concrete.” Direktor said the building was inspected by Frank Morabito, an experienced engineer who Direktor said was now assisting authorities investigating the collapse. Morabito did not respond to a request for comment.
Rare to just have a structural collapse that levels a building. More likely the ground gave way underneath. So much water there erosion occurs regularly and nobody would know it. It wouldn't need to be very big. Just enough to stress it.
It's possible, but at this point you're just guessing -- there is no evidence a sinkhole caused this collapse.
Chances are this is multiple causes. My own feeling is that it’s likely due to a combination of corrosion of steel reinforcing from water getting into concrete along with subsidence of the foundations. I get that people are going to want to blame someone but it’s possible there might not be anything that can be directly pinned on anyone. It might not make people feel better but things can be built to code and following best practices and something still could go wrong. This could fit the “Act of God.” At the risk of bringing this to D&D territory I also think it is possible that climate change played a role in this. It’s an open secret that Miami’s beaches aren’t natural anymore and they have been having to be replenished by sand. Since this building was built we have seen a rise in sea levels along with a pattern of wetter storms. It’s possible that erosion of beach along with infiltration of seawater destabilized the foundation. Meanwhile more rain and salt spray is degrading the structural elements. No matter what though we probably won’t get any solid answers for awhile.
Likely over 100 residents died, most would have been in bed. Watching the surveillance video, a large part of the building stayed up long enough for those inside asleep to wake up, wondering what on earth was happening, just in time for the world to literally fall on top of them. Don't see anything funny about any of this.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/us/miami-building-collapse-investigation.html This buildings structural issues were discovered in 2018.
