“structural damage” had already been noted

Tangles of beams and metal, piles of rubble, the smell of carbonized rubber and plastic … Rescue workers continued their relentless search on Saturday in the rubble of a residential building near Miami three days after its spectacular collapse that caused five dead and 156 missing, according to the latest report. The case is still ongoing. A report, published Friday, attests that weaknesses had already been noted on the building.

A report pointed to “major structural damage”

The building had weaknesses and an engineer had already pointed it out three years ago. Its report, published Friday on the website of the town of Surfside, reports major structural damage from cracks in the beams of the garage in the basement, waterproofing problems around the pool, damage probably due to the continuous exposure to air and sea salt, he explains.

At the time, there was no risk of collapse, he said, but repairs needed to maintain the integrity of the structure. Work was also underway on the roof of the building, and the building had just started a new certification process.

Forty years after its construction, as required by Florida law to prevent further tragedies, the mayor of Miami-Dade County called for an immediate audit of buildings in the region. “Our teams will start an audit of all buildings 40 years of age and older and we will conduct this audit in the next 30 days,” she said.

In a joint statement with his university, however, the author of the study clarified that land subsidence alone would not cause a building to collapse. In the meantime, the investigation to determine the exact causes of the Surfside tragedy will likely last for months, experts have warned.

For the moment, investigators do not have access to the site where rescue teams continue their search for survivors. A task made even more difficult by a fire that spread through the rubble.

“We keep hope”

“Our rescue teams found another body in the rubble, and our search also uncovered human remains,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a press conference. After the identification of three of the bodies previously found, “this means that the number of missing goes down to 156, and that the number of confirmed deaths stands at five,” she added.

The search was complicated on Saturday by a fire that broke out at the site where the twelve-story building, named Champlain Towers, collapsed before dawn Thursday. The smoke has spread through the rubble which makes some research areas inaccessible, according to the mayor. The firefighters asked residents to stay at home, windows and doors closed, to protect themselves from the fumes. “We remain hopeful. (…) We are looking for people living in the rubble, it is our priority and our teams have not stopped”, nevertheless supported Daniella Levine Cava.

One of the bodies found in the rubble has been identified as Stacie Fang, the mother of a 15-year-old boy rescued from the rubble on Thursday morning. Taken to hospital, she did not survive, according to the Miami Herald. Among the missing nine Argentines, three Uruguayans and six Paraguayans, including the sister of the First Lady of Paraguay, and at least four Canadians, according to the authorities.