# Champlain Towers South in Miami has caved in {2021-06-24} **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Tags:** breaking-news\ **Created:** [June 24, 2021, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931 "2021-06-24T09:42:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 33
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2021, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/645 "2021-07-24T21:53:39Z")
Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2021, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/646 "2021-07-25T01:28:10Z")
Estelle Hedaya from unit 604 > **[The agonizing wait for the family of the presumed last missing Surfside victim...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/23/us/surfside-collapse-final-unidentified-family/index.html)** > > One day before the somber one-month anniversary of the Surfside condo collapse, the family of Estelle Hedaya told CNN she is the final victim that authorities have yet to find and identify. ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2021, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/647 "2021-07-25T09:49:18Z")
So it sounds like they have one person still missing and one unidentified body but they apparently don’t match. Pretty incredible that they have been able to almost completely account for everyone missing and for the bodies found. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/648 "2021-07-25T20:42:45Z")
It’s also possible they have body parts that they have not matched up to anyone yet, and the unidentified person is among those parts. ---
**Author:** ![wizzito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wizzito/32/8487_2.png) [@wizzito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wizzito)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/649 "2021-07-26T22:38:02Z")
> **[Final Victim of Surfside Condo Collapse Is Identified (Published 2021)](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/26/us/surfside-collapse-last-victim.html)** > > A relative of Estelle Hedaya, 54, said the authorities had identified her remains. The final death toll is 98. The last victim has just been identified. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/650 "2021-07-26T23:12:14Z")
What an unbelievable ordeal this has been for the families… 😢 Damn. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/651 "2021-07-27T01:55:13Z")
I’m glad that at least they were able to account for everybody; so that nobody’s left wondering whether their loved one might have somehow not been there, but for whatever reason hasn’t reported in. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/652 "2021-07-27T02:35:35Z")
I can totally see someone living alone, lots of debt, runs out to grab some food, and their building collapses. Must be tempting to quietly skedaddle. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/653 "2021-07-27T13:30:31Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Must be tempting to quietly skedaddle. Didn’t a couple of people try that after 9/11? Hell, if they were successful we’d still never know. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/654 "2021-07-27T16:54:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I can totally see someone living alone, lots of debt, runs out to grab some food, and their building collapses. Must be tempting to quietly skedaddle. I know of one person who did that in the wake of the Johnstown Flood. He reappeared decades later. But that was in the days before computer databases and IDs and such. That would be much harder to do now. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/655 "2021-07-27T17:09:04Z")
Harder, but not impossible. [ETA: especially if somebody escaped down the stairs with their pockets full of cash and/or other easily portable valuables.) And the difficulty might not keep somebody from trying it for a while. An even less likely, but more unpleasant, possibility: somebody kidnapped that night, whose captor would then have nobody looking for the person. In any case, I’m glad neither of those scenarious is a possibility. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/656 "2021-07-27T18:42:21Z")
Here’s a doctor who was officially declared a 9/11 victim after a lot of legal back-and-forth. Maybe she died heroically, rushed to the Twin Towers and was killed in the collapse, or maybe she disappeared in some other way. > **[Disappearance of Sneha Anne Philip](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Sneha_Anne_Philip)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Sneha Anne Philip (October 7, 1969 – legal d. September 11, 2001) was an Indian-American physician who was last seen on September 10, 2001, by a department store surveillance camera near her Lower Manhattan apartment. She may have returned to the building at some point that night or the next morning. Due to the proximity of the World Trade Center and her medical training, Philip's family believes she perished trying to help victims of the follow... ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/657 "2021-07-28T00:05:04Z")
There also might have been visitors who died and no one has realized they’re gone yet. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/658 "2021-07-28T00:26:15Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > Here’s a doctor who was officially declared a 9/11 victim after a lot of legal back-and-forth. Maybe she died heroically, rushed to the Twin Towers and was killed in the collapse, or maybe she disappeared in some other way. Creepy story. Thanks for sharing! ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/659 "2021-07-28T00:42:41Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > There also might have been visitors who died and no one has realized they’re gone yet. Possible; but in that case there’d have to be the sizeable coincidence that despite the rescuers having been able to identify remains for all of 92 people, they missed finding exactly the person(s) who haven’t been reported (as there don’t seem to be any results that came up as being an unreported person), while not missing anybody else. Not an impossible coincidence; but at least unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/660 "2021-07-28T19:08:54Z")
Related to this topic, there’s a structural inspector who posts pictures on Imgur. Worth checking out. [Here’s his latest (he posts weekly).](https://imgur.com/gallery/mVfLuGU) ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/661 "2021-08-04T04:22:22Z")
Body cam video from one of the first cops on the scene. [https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/oxda7z/bodycam\_video\_released\_that\_shows\_moment\_when/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/comments/oxda7z/bodycam_video_released_that_shows_moment_when/) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/662 "2021-08-04T04:32:47Z")
Just coming to post that. Here is the _Miami Herald_ link. > **[First police videos released in Surfside condo collapse: Scenes of shock,...](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article253225363.html)** > > Body camera video from three of the first Surfside officers on the scene of the Champlain Towers South condo collapse captured scenes of almost unthinkable chaos: Thick clouds of dust, a landscape strewn with wreckage and cries of help from unseen,... ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2021, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/663 "2021-08-10T14:18:40Z")
This has prompted examination of other structures in the area. > **[Hundreds of residents told to evacuate after Miami condo building deemed unsafe](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hundreds-residents-told-evacuate-after-miami-building-deemed-unsafe-n1276397)** > > Since the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, which left 98 people dead, officials have sought to review the structural integrity of buildings. > The 137-unit building at 5050 NW Seventh St. was placed under an evacuation order, according to Miami building director Asael “Ace” Marrero, [NBC Miami](https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/residents-told-to-evacuate-miami-building-deemed-unsafe/2525803/) reported. > > “We obviously don’t feel that it’s safe,” he told the news station. “Structural integrity has been degraded by the contractor proceeding with the repairs that they were not authorized to do.” > [City] officials told the [[Miami Herald](https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article253383003.html)] that the property manager was asked to submit a plan to fix columns in the first floor of its building, but it never received such plans nor did the building apply for a work permit to do repairs. > “We have a lot of elderly owners here that have no place to go,” resident Dmidry Asanov said. “Some have Covid, some can’t walk.” > > The city is working with residents to help them with temporary housing, Marrero said. > > The building was scheduled to be part of a hearing at a city unsafe structure panel on Aug. 20. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931/664 "2021-08-16T00:37:00Z")
Here’s the latest post by [Building Integrity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaZcyq7YsNA) that goes over the original building plans based on the building codes at the time of construction. WOW. The deck columns and deck construction were built at 100% standing load capacity. That’s before the incorrect slope for runoff and waterproofing. And there are more deficiencies. The rebar wasn’t to spec for temperature expansion issues. I’d be worried if the other Champlain buildings were built to the same standards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931.md?page=32) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/champlain-towers-south-in-miami-has-caved-in-2021-06-24/944931.md?page=34)