Surfside condo residents worry over their safety after building collapse [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Authorities have ordered building inspections along the Surfside Champlain Towers following Thursday’s collapse.
• Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett recommended the evacuation of the remaining residents of the Champlain Towers building.
• Groups have also analyzed ground movements along the coastline to determine the cause of destruction.

Amid the continuous search and rescue operations at the doomed Champlain Towers South Condo, Surfside officials ordered inspections on neighboring buildings over fears of potential catastrophes.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett has suggested the evacuation of Champlain Towers North residents. The structure of the North building was almost similar to the South building which partially shattered early Thursday.

While the engineers did not find any severe disfigurements during their initial inspections of the north building on Saturday, Burkett noted that their assessment was “not a deep dive into the building itself.”

“I can’t say I’d be excited about staying in that building myself,” he said.

At least one board member of the Champlain Towers North has requested officials “to quickly send inspectors or engineers to inspect or verify the safety conditions of the property.”

Condo owner Salomon Gold said that there has been “no concrete knowledge” about the building’s safety and present condition amid rising speculations. 

On the other hand, the Champlain Towers North president of condo association Naum Lusky noted that local authorities have already spent over three hours of inspection on Saturday. “It’s safe… They checked all the structures in the lower end of the building, the garage, and everything was okay,” Lusky said. 

He also noted that some residents have left voluntarily since the neighboring condo collapsed, but added that some of them “are coming back now that they know that everything is safe.”

Concerns over another building collapse were sparked by an engineer’s report published in 2018, stating ‘serious structural flaws’ from the condominium’s evaluation.

Frank Morabito, the engineer who led the report at the time, revealed on Saturday that “among other things, our report detailed significant cracks and breaks in the concrete, which required repairs to ensure the safety of the residents and the public.”

Meanwhile, the search for causes of the surfside’s building destruction also sprung up. On Saturday, at least three firms and two space agencies conducted on-site inspections and assessed satellite data to identify if there were any abnormal movements before the tragedy occurred. Their findings are expected to be shared with Surfside officials.

The Surfside Champlain South Towers’ collapse also served as an eye-opener for towns across the US’ coastlines.

According to Carl Pucci, founder and president of EO59, a company that analyzes past and present satellite data, the nation’s coastlines are “experiencing a slow motion crisis.”

Pucci revealed that his firm was analyzing data for every Surfside building to identify if there had been active ground movements.

“We are working very hard to determine if the residents are safe in those structures,” he said, adding that there had been movements in some structures but did not disclose further details.

Source: MSN.com