World Weekly丨U.S. high-end seaside apartments collapsed overnight. Was it a natural disaster or a man-made disaster?
A catastrophic building collapse accident in Florida, USA continues to attract attention from many quarters.
A high-end apartment building with hundreds of residential units suddenly collapsed in a large area late at night. The New York Times believes that this may be the deadliest accident in American history.
This week, on July 7, 14 days after the collapse of the Champlain apartment building, the Florida local government announced that the focus of its current operations was changed from "search and rescue" to "aftermath".
Miami-Dade County Magistrate Kava:
So far, we have done everything we can to carry out search and rescue. Starting today, we will start the aftermath.
After comprehensively analyzing all the information, the Miami-Dade County Fire and Rescue Department concluded that there is no possibility of finding survivors.
On the day the search and rescue operation came to an end, 86 people were still missing, 54 people were confirmed dead, and more than 150 people were injured.
On the 7th, the rescue team held a prayer ceremony for the victims at the scene of the accident.
The families of some missing persons were disappointed by the government's decision to stop search and rescue.
Family members of the missing:
She said that it is difficult to accept the news of her son's death. She still has hope, and there is hope in the ruins.
But now this hope is gone, and the hope of life is taken away.
At about 1 a.m. on June 24th, local time, a large-scale collapse occurred in the southern part of the Champlain Waterfront Apartment Building, which is only 6 miles away from downtown Miami.
Out of a total of 316 units in the apartment building, 55 completely collapsed.
There were about 300 residents in the building at that time.
More than 80 fire trucks arrived at the scene one after another. After overnight rescue, firefighters finally rescued 35 survivors standing on the balcony calling for help.
Survivor Steve:
Last Thursday (24th) at 1:30 in the morning, I was sleeping in bed, I heard the biggest thunder in my life, it was huge.
I think it might be fine, because it is forecasted that there will be a big storm in Miami recently, which is normal in the hot and humid June.
After about 5 seconds, the bed started to shake, and then the room started to shake...
. I opened the door and walked to the living room. This is the scene, everything collapsed.
Next door to me is 704, I think they were yelling "Help! Help! Help me out!" I only learned today that they were dead, and there was only one unit away from me. If I was in that unit at the time, I would be dead. Up.
Many residents of Champlain Apartments are not as lucky as Steve.
Although the rescue department said that there may be survivors using the small space inside the collapsed building, the rescue work has been difficult and slow due to the extremely unstable interior of the collapsed building.
Jadala, Assistant Director of the Miami-Dade County Fire and Rescue Department:
Every time we try to open the way into the building, there will be
ruined walls hitting
us.
According to the first group of rescuers, the survivors' calls for help could still be heard in the building on the night when the apartment building collapsed, but as time went on, after 48 hours, by the evening of the 26th, all the calls for help had disappeared. .
During this period, many families of missing persons asked to enter the scene to find their relatives on their own, but they were rejected by the government.
Family members of the missing:
I am a mother, and I don’t care about any technical matters, but now I can’t justify it.
It's been four days, no one to live, no corpse to die... You haven't done enough, think about if your children were buried there.
Family members of the missing:
No one went into the rubble to save people. I told the governor and the mayor about the situation. They said, "Oh, yes, the rescue team is saving people on the other side," I said, " No, they are standing there."
No one is saving people.
"The New York Times" lamented that the scene of the collapse of the apartment building has never been seen before, and the scene of the accident is like a Middle East war zone.
And Burkert, the mayor of Surfside, Miami-Dade County, where the accident occurred, was also at a loss for a while.
Surfside Mayor Burkert:
This is something that has never happened before. The building in the United States does not seem to collapse, but this one just collapsed.
Due to the lack of rescue experience, the Florida government specially invited a 15-member expert rescue team from the Israeli military on the 28th, but when this group of professionals arrived at the scene, they had already missed the 48-hour golden rescue time.
Israeli military rescuer Vicki:
Our purpose is to tell these (American) rescuers what to dig....
This is one of the most difficult accidents I have ever seen. It has been almost 6 days since the accident happened. Although hope is very slim, what I want to say is that it is not without chance. There are miracles happening all over the world in history.
Unfortunately, the room leaked even night rain.
From the 1st, Hurricane Elsa approached the southeastern coast of the United States. Showers and strong winds interrupted rescue operations in apartment buildings several times.
According to the initial prediction of the weather model, "Elsa" is likely to hit the Miami area head-on on the 5th.
The Miami-Dade County government believes that the arrival of the hurricane may completely collapse the apartment building, which will pose a threat to the safety of rescuers and the public.
On July 4, the day of American Independence Day, the county government finally decided to use explosives to blast the remaining part of the apartment building before the hurricane.
At that time, 109 people were still missing.
Miami-Dade County Magistrate Kava: To
tell the truth, I feel relieved at this moment. This building is unstable and hindered our search work. It was impossible before.
However, the itinerary of Hurricane Elsa suddenly changed before it made landfall, and eventually the center of the hurricane wiped the west side of Florida and went all the way north.
At this time, the scene of the accident was in ruins, and the chance of surviving the missing was almost zero.
People where the accident happened. Stephen:
I think this is a particularly good example. It shows that there is too much bureaucracy in the government system. Especially in this kind of emergency, saving people should not wait so long for several weeks. Red tape must be saved. province.
According to the ABC report, in the first moment of the disaster, the rescue force of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can, in theory, set off as soon as possible and go to Florida to carry out rescue operations.
However, according to the disaster response procedures in the United States, federal forces can enter a place only after the governor declares the disaster or the accident has entered a "state of emergency."
U.S. President Biden:
I told Florida that no matter what help is needed, the federal government will provide it. We will wait, and we will be there if we have anything to do.
The Florida Republican Governor DeSantis’ "state of emergency" statement was not issued until 16 hours after the accident.
Afterwards, in the face of external criticism of the slow rescue, the governor’s office dumped the pot at the feet of the Democratic governor of Miami-Dade County, saying that only when the county government issued an accident statement can the state government declare the accident into a “state of emergency”.
In this regard, the ABC lamented that while the federal-state-county, and three levels of government are observing "political correctness", the precious golden rescue time has passed by one minute and one second.
On June 28, the Wall Street Journal disclosed an illegal operation during the construction of the Champlain Building.
According to the building records of the Surfside City Council, in 1979, the initial design submitted by the developer was to build a 12-story residential building.
But when it was almost completed in 1981, the developer decided to build a penthouse apartment with a height of about 2.7 meters.
Although the height of the additional building exceeded the legal building height, it was still approved by the then Mayor of Surfside Michel Kanazawa.
After the apartment collapsed, Kanazawa said that he could not remember the details of the approval of the project when he was asked by the Miami Herald, but he said: "In the 1980s, developers violated the height restrictions. It's nothing new, they always want to make more money."
Senator Pizzo, Democrat of Florida:
Money laundering is rampant in this area. These people transfer a lot of money and do a lot of shameful deeds.
Under the glamorous coat, Miami at the southern tip of Florida is actually a paradise for criminals.
Since the 1970s, due to its convenient geographical location, Miami has gradually become a transit point for drugs entering the United States.
By the early 1980s, the Miami area had concentrated 70% of cocaine, 70% of marijuana, and 90% of methamphetamine in the United States.
The documentary "Cocaine Cowboys" shows exactly the connection between Miami's drug trafficking activities and economic development during this period-criminals "laundered" the black money earned from the drug market, and then reinvested, and in all local industries, management The most lenient and most suitable for money laundering is the real estate industry.
U.S. Senator Biden at the time: The
most terrifying and embarrassing thing in the fight against drug crimes is that a large amount of black money, tens of billions of dollars of black money, eventually flows into serious business.
In coastal cities, penthouses facing the sea usually bring the most profits to developers compared to other floors.
According to data from the U.S. real estate website Zillow, just one month before the collapse of the Champlin apartment, a 4-bedroom penthouse was sold for close to US$2.9 million, compared to other buildings of the same size and same orientation. The floor price is at least 30% higher.
Although it is not yet possible to judge whether the additional penthouse apartment has brought excessive pressure to the building, as the investigation unfolded, more "human-caused factors" began to enter the field of vision of investigators.
CBS News Miami Investigative Correspondent DeFity:
More and more focus is on the underground garage and swimming pool area, and the architectural structure of this area has become the focus of investigators' attention.
According to the "Miami Herald" report, as early as October 2018, the American Morabito Consultants had issued a warning to the Owners Committee of Champlain Apartments, saying that the waterproof system under the swimming pool in the southern part of the apartment had failed and the sea water continued to penetrate. As a result, there are a lot of cracks in the columns, beams and walls of the underground parking lot under the swimming pool, which may cause "serious damage" to the concrete structure of the apartment building.
According to estimates by Morabito Consultants, approximately 9 million US dollars are required to repair the above-mentioned problems.
One month later, on November 13, 2018, the Champlain Apartment Owners Committee forwarded the report to Prieto of the Surfside City Government Building Security Management Office.
Unexpectedly, two days later, at the meeting of the owners' committee on November 15th, Prieto came to the scene and said that after verification, the apartment building was "in good condition."
Owner Alres:
What I want to tell you is that in 2018, when the Owners Committee and the Surfside City Council met, they said that the apartment building is okay, and the apartment building is okay.
With the assurance of Prieto, the city government official, the owners' committee eliminated the year of major repairs to the apartment.
According to the laws of Miami-Dade County, Florida, any building with more than three stories needs to renew its safety inspection certification every 40 years.
By 2021, the Champlain apartment building will reach that age.
In the county government's review, Xiangplan Apartment failed to pass the inspection.
In April 2021, at this time, the total repair price has surged from US$9 million to US$16.2 million.
The Owners Committee stated that the cost will be shared according to the size of each household, and the cost of each household will range from 80 to 330,000 U.S. dollars.
The deadline for the first payment is July 1 this year.
Unfortunately, Champlain Apartments did not last until this day.
On June 22, two days before the building collapsed, the apartment maintenance staff took photos of steel corrosion, concrete bursting, and water seepage in the underground garage.
Residents also heard "creaking noises" from the building.
At 1:20 am on June 24, the building collapsed.
Owner Alres:
We want answers, we want all answers, that is my home.
Four days after the building collapsed, on June 28, the whereabouts of Prieto, the key figure in the incident, was unknown.
According to ABC reports, until the day of the incident, Prieto was still conducting "house safety inspections" for the local government.
Although the cause of the accident is still inconclusive, the Democratic and Republican parties have already played a "political card" in this regard.
On July 3, on the eve of Independence Day, the former US president appeared in the coastal city of Sarasota in Florida and delivered a "National Day" speech to canvass for the midterm elections of the US Congress next year.
Former US President Trump:
In just five months, the Biden administration launched a full-scale attack on everything we cherish.
Under the leadership of Joe Biden and the Left Party, I don't know if it is Joe.
To be honest, there should be someone else who is in charge. Do you know who it is?
This can't help but remind people of the 2005 republican Bush administration, because of the hurricane Katrina disaster rescue is not enough to be blamed.
In the Obama era, the slow response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 was called "Obama's Hurricane Katrina", and Obama's approval rating also declined.
In the epidemic crisis last year, the Democratic and Republican parties blamed each other and engaged in a "fighting war."
In today's building collapse incident, "climate change" has played the role of "backbone" again.
Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy, and a Democratic political star born in the show business like Reagan, is favored by Biden, who once served as a car dealer, for advocating vigorously developing electric vehicles.
In an interview with CNN on June 30, Granholm claimed that climate change factors played an important role in the accident and called on Congress to approve the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan as soon as possible.
US Secretary of Energy Granholm:
Sea levels are rising, and we are losing beaches inch by inch. This is not only happening in Florida, but all over the United States. This phenomenon will continue.
We need to wait for the results of the investigation of collapsed apartments. At the same time, we need to strengthen our ability to respond to disasters and climate change. This means that we need to build dams, need to build seawalls, and need to build infrastructure.
Rep. Donald, Republican of Florida, believes that Granholm is using the topic to exaggerate the facts in order to achieve political goals.
Fox News Anchor:
She talked about climate change and infrastructure. At this moment, the body is being carried out of the rubble. I think it is not appropriate to talk about politics at this time.
In fact, according to a report by the National Broadcasting Corporation, the state of the infrastructure in the United States is indeed very bad.
At present, about 43% of the roads in the United States are in a "bad" to "average" level, 53% of public school related supporting facilities are in urgent need of repair, and 45% of the United States is not covered by public transportation.
Just one day before the collapse of Florida's waterfront apartment, a pedestrian bridge collapsed above Interstate 295, one of the major transportation hubs in the capital, Washington, when hit by a pickup truck. At least five people were involved in the accident. Injured, several cars were smashed and two-way traffic was blocked.
According to a report from the Washington Local Station, the bridge was judged to be "dangerous" during the inspection in February this year, and it has not been repaired so far.
And as the storm "Elsa" arrived in New York State, due to the old drainage system, on the 8th, many subway stations in New York City staged a tragedy of rainwater backflow.
At the Grand Plaza Station that transfers to Line 2 and Line 5, the stairs directly turn into a waterfall.
At Broadway Station, passengers had to walk to the platform in waist-deep dirty water.
According to Reuters, a bill that is expected to improve these issues has recently been blocked again in the US Congress.
On June 24, the US$2.2 trillion infrastructure plan that US President Biden pushed forward from the beginning of his term "shrinked" again.
Previously, the Biden administration promised to finalize the plan before Independence Day on July 4. Today, only moderate members of the Democratic and Republican parties have reached a preliminary consensus on the basic framework of US$1.2 trillion, including new expenditure items. It's only 577 billion U.S. dollars.
Senator Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts:
What we want is a complete plan, not something that has been cut to pieces.
So far this year, the domestic emergency situation in the United States has continued. In Oregon alone, 99 people have died of high temperatures, and more than 3,500 wildfires have occurred in California, which is more than 1,000 times higher than the normal level in the past five years.
93% of the western United States is also in drought.
This week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which specializes in establishing federal operating standards for buildings, said that the comprehensive investigation results of the collapse of the beachfront apartment building may take several years to be released.
Schaefer, a structural engineer at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, noted that there are already too many infrastructures in the United States that are at risk due to factors such as disrepair or climate change. It's better sooner than later.
This collapse has undoubtedly sounded a wake-up call to all parties involved.
Choreographer丨Jia Li, Zhang Cheng, Lu Xinyang