Six unanswered questions from Miami condo collapse that killed 98 after mystery of children’s bunk beds solved

IN the early hours of June 24 2021, a Miami condo collapsed, killing 98 and leaving dozens of families grieving.

After a year has passed, the authorities still do not know what brought about the collapse of Champlain Towers South, and there are a number of questions that remain unanswered.

In the wake of the catastrophe, photographs of the devastation, including one that depicted bunk beds hanging precariously from the building, went popular on the internet.

When the condo fell to the ground, the general public questioned whether or not a youngster had been there in the room at the time.

The mystery was solved when it was discovered that Linda Martin, a resident of New York, had been using the space as a home office all along.

Twelve months after the single deadliest structural disaster in the United States that was not caused by terrorism, there are still some questions that have not been answered.

The investigators have not been able to determine what caused the collapse of the condo.

In October of 2020, employees from Morabito Consultants reported discovering substantial concrete damage and suspending repairs due to fears that the apartment may collapse.

Due to concerns that the work would compromise the structural integrity of nearby apartment buildings, maintenance tasks were unable to be carried out.

The Morabito crew discovered a stairwell that had become damaged and brought attention to problems in the area around the wall and the swimming pool.

The deterioration of the steel panels that extended the rebar in the structure was the root cause of the problem.

A structural engineering professor at the University of Washington named Dawn Lehman remarked, “This would have been one of the several problems that should have been addressed in the aging structure.”

“It will cost you a lot of money to rectify, and you won’t be able to make a simple repair on damage that is this substantial; rather, you will have to replace the damaged reinforcement and the concrete.”

According to Ms. Lehman, it is highly doubtful that the rusting of the steel beams was the only factor that led to the collapse.

Residents of the condo were informed that the structure was “deteriorating” after an engineer inspected it in 2018 and identified “serious structural concerns” in the property.

In addition to this, it shed light on the fact that the building’s design contained a “serious mistake.”

Ever since the condo collapsed to the ground, investigators have been frantically searching for explanations.

One of the organizations that are going to be in charge of the next step of the probe is the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The comment was made by Judith Mitrani-Reiser, who was quoted by the publication as saying, “It is really intricate, and it’s rare.”

“All of us, just like the general public, are desperate to figure out the most likely explanation of the event’s beginning and its subsequent collapse.”

She continued by saying, “Here you have a structure that fell late in the nighttime hours without any visible trigger, and it truly, I know, has confused a lot of engineers.”

Researchers in the fields of science and geology have investigated whether or not the presence of saltwater played a part in the deterioration of the building’s concrete.

As a result of the confusion, a number of different hypotheses have been proposed as possible explanations.

According to Diana Rodriguez, an associate professor at Arizona State University, Miami Beach is considered “ground zero” for the effects of rising sea levels and is at risk for “chronic several flooding.”

The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change researchers believe that there may be an increase in sea level of between 10 and 17 inches between now and the year 2040.

Randall Parkinson, a geologist, was one of the experts who discovered that increasing sea levels drive seawater closer to the foundations of buildings.

Parkinson emphasized that dangers such as seawater did not play a role in the collapse of the Champlain Towers, but he concerns that the notion was overlooked.

He stated, “You can see the deterioration of the coast. You are able to determine whether or not you are losing your shoreline and whether or not your property is getting inundated.

“What you don’t see and what people haven’t thought much about is underground activity. Unseen. “Forgettable”

As a result of the tragedy that occurred at Champlain Towers, a map was created that highlighted additional places in Miami that contained condos and buildings of a like kind.

According to the findings of the study, the land around Park View Island is sinking at a pace of 2.3 millimeters each year.

According to what the map showed, locations in the Flamingo and Lummus areas of South Beach are sinking.

The abstract of the research issued a warning that areas including Boston, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Virginia, and Miami Beach were facing a greater risk of flooding as a direct result of increasing sea levels.

As Tropical Storm Alex made its way across south Florida, meteorologists predicted that the region might have received up to 15 inches of rain.

While the families of the murdered waited for answers, first responders and rescue workers labored diligently to recover the bodies of the dead.

On July 26, 2021, it was determined that Estelle Hedaya was the 98th and final fatality of the condominium complex’s collapse. The efforts to collect her body continued for close to a month.

Fire Chief Alan Cominsky stated at the time that there was no proof that any of the people who were found dead had survived the initial collapse. “In the end, teams uncovered no evidence that anyone who was found deceased had survived the initial collapse.”

However, several families were only given a small portion of their relatives’ remains once the bodies of their loved ones were found.

The family of Hedaya reported that they had no trouble carrying her casket when they attended her funeral.

In an interview with the Washington Post, her closest friend Lisa Shrem said, “I could have lifted it with my pinkie.”

A timeline of the events that led up to the collapse of the condo building at Champlain Towers indicated that there was a delay of seven minutes between the collapse of the pool deck and the collapse of the building itself.

Iliana Monteagudo, however, who owned a unit in the building, asserted that neither a fire alarm nor a siren sounded when the incident occurred.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Monteagudo stated, “There was no alert.” That would have been enough to get everyone out of bed.

And the film captured by Ring appeared to reveal that there was never an alarm that went out when debris began to fall.

William Bryson, who served as the fire chief of Miami-Dade County in the past, stated that if citizens had listened to an alarm and followed the directions, it may have made all the difference.

The New York Times disclosed that the structure in question included an advanced warning system; nevertheless, a security guard working there was unable to activate the system.

The discovery was made while residents and security guards were being questioned by the police.

Shamoka Furman stated that she “would have pressed it” if she had been aware of the situation.