5 Things To Know About The Surfside Condo Collapse

SURFSIDE, FL — First responders are working around the clock at the site of a 12-story condo that collapsed in Surfside early Thursday morning, digging through debris and searching for victims.

As of Friday morning, four deaths have been confirmed after three bodies were found in the rubble of the oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo at 8777 Collins Ave. overnight, while 159 people remain missing, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. One person was confirmed dead Thursday not long after the building collapsed. Since then, another 37 people have been pulled from the devastation and 120 have been accounted for.

A state of emergency has been declared in Florida and President Joe Biden has authorized FEMA assistance for both the recovery efforts at the site and to support those affected by the building’s collapse.

While the community plays the waiting game as workers continue searching through the piles of rubble, here are five things you should know about this South Florida tragedy.

At least 31 Latin Americans have been reported missing in the building’s collapse.

Officials from six countries — Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, Chile and Paraguay — said some of their citizens are missing in the building's collapse.

According to Paraguay's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, six Paraguayans are missing. This includes President Mario Abdo Benítez's sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their three children, NBC News reported.

Eduardo Bouzout, Uruguay's consul in Miami, told CNN that three Uruguayan citizens were in the building when it fell.

CNN also reported that there were six Colombian nationals and one Chilean who were living in the condo building and missing. There were also six Venezuelans in the building at the time of the collapse and are missing.

And Argentina's consulate in Miami issued a press release on Twitter stating that nine Argentinians are missing after the condo tower fell.

Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that emergency visas have been approved for people from more than a dozen countries whose loved ones are among those missing in the condo tower collapse.

Related:

• Family Identifies FL Condo Collapse Victim, 4 Dead, 159 Missing
• 2 Chicago Men Among Those Missing In Florida Building Collapse

The first lawsuit has been filed.

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the Champlain Towers South Condo Association “for its failures to secure and safeguard the lives and property” of those living in the building, WPBF reported.

It was filed late Thursday night by the Brad Sohn Law Firm on behalf of Manuel Drezner and “all those similarly situated.”

The suit asks the condo association to pay damages, costs and other fees that will likely exceed $5 million, reports said.

Roof work was done recently at Champlain Towers.

There are no answers for why this condo tower has collapsed yet. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said minor construction, including roof work, had been done at Champlain Towers recently, NPR reported.

"But there's roof work being done on buildings all the time, and it's hard to imagine that that could have been the impetus for such a catastrophic collapse - I'm sure that it probably wasn't," he said.

According to the Miami Herald, Burkett said such a collapse was “less likely than a lightning strike. It just doesn’t happen. You don’t see buildings falling down in America.”

Engineering experts have suggested several factors that might have caused the collapse, such as saltwater corroding the building’s concrete or, possibly, weakening beams, the Herald reported.

The newspaper requested Champlain Towers’ 40-year-inspection documents but was told by the town clerk that the building’s owner had just started the recertification process, so these documents don’t exist.

Experts said the condo tower showed signs of sinking in the 1990s.

A Florida International University professor, Shimon Wdowinski, said that data from research he conducted in the 1990s indicated that parts of Miami Beach and areas of Surfside, including the Champlain Towers site, have been gradually sinking for decades, the Miami New Times reported.

Using satellite data, he determined the condo tower was sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters per year between 1993 to 1999. While this likely didn’t cause the building to collapse, it’s still cause for concern, he reportedly said. He hopes to prevent future tragedies by using the data he collected to identify vulnerable buildings.

How you can support those affected by the condo tower’s collapse.

A hardship fund, SupportSurfside.org, has been established to help residents and families affected by the condo collapse. The Coral Gables Community Foundation, The Key Biscayne Community Foundation, and The Miami Foundation are working together to handle the fund, which is taking donations through the website.

Another fundraiser has been set up by The Shul of Bal Harbour through an online fundraising tool, The Chesed Fund. With a goal of raising $1 million, so far more than $680,000 has been donated.