To assist people who were impacted by the building collapse in Miami last week. Miami Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava offered an update on the fatalities on Tuesday, saying that the death toll had climbed to 12, the number of people missing had fallen to 149, and the number of individuals accounted for had increased to 125. One of the first lawsuits filed against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association in response to the collapse, according to Local 10 News, was filed late Thursday following the collapse.
The action was filed on Manuel Drezner’s behalf, as well as “on behalf of all those similarly situated.” The lawsuit claims that the building’s association failed to “protect and defend the lives and property” of individuals who live there, according to the Brad Sohn Law Firm. They want the victims to be paid if the building collapses. Another complaint was filed over the weekend, according to the news outlet. Steve Rosenthal, who lived in Unit 705, was the person who submitted it. The association knew or should have known “the entire structure was failing and increasingly subject to catastrophic loss via collapse,” according to his claim. He’s looking for an undisclosed sum of money.
He wants unspecified monetary damages as well as a jury trial. “The factors contributing to its collapse exist in many of our high-rise concrete buildings,” Rosenthal’s attorney, Bob McKee, said. With teeth in urgent need of thorough and timely repair, a change to implement more frequent inspection is required. Otherwise, we’ll see more instances like the horrifying breakdown and collapse of Champlain Towers South, which we’ve all experienced. More injury, whether in the form of delayed water-damaged building health damage or sudden structure breakdown, is the last thing we want to see.
According to NBC News, a letter was issued to tenants of the Champlain Towers South in April, warning them that “concrete deterioration is accelerating” and that damage “would begin to proliferate exponentially.” Engineer Frank Morabito, who was hired in 2018 to begin the recertification process, reported that the building’s underground parking garage was “abundantly cracking” and crumbling, and that waterproofing under the pool deck and entrance drive was failing, “causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.”
CNN reports that Col. Golan Vach, commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit, said that the site where they are searching for people has been the most difficult he’s worked with and added, “This building collapsed very, very badly if I can use this word because it collapsed into itself.” He continued, “And the bedrooms that we are looking for because the people (slept) in the bedrooms are under 4 or 5 meters (13 to 16 feet) of concrete.”
