FL Condo Collapse: Grand Jury Investigation, Biden Plans Visit

Updated: 12:40 a.m., Wednesday

SURFSIDE, FL — As first responders continue to search for survivors among the rubble of the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South Condo, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she plans to ask a grand jury to investigate the building’s sudden fall, the Miami Herald reported.

At a news conference Tuesday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she supports a grand jury inquiry into the matter and pledged her assistance to the state attorney’s office.

Search-and-rescue teams from all over the state and the world — including Mexico and Israel — continue to search through the devastation at the site, Levine Cava said.

More than 200 first responders, working in 12-hour shifts, are at the site at all times, the mayor added.

Since the building's collapse early Thursday, about 3 million pounds of concrete have been removed from the site, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue tweeted Tuesday.

A twelfth body was recovered from the site Tuesday. This brings the number of confirmed dead at Champlain Towers to 12, while 149 people are still unaccounted for.

Of the 12 victims, 11 have been identified by Miami-Dade police, who have shared their names on social media. The latest three victims, whose names were shared late Monday, are Marcus Joseph Guara, 52; Frank Kleiman, 55, and Michael David Altman, 50.

Late Saturday, police shared the names of four residents of the building whose bodies were recovered at the site: Antonio Lozano, 83, and his wife, Gladys Lozano, 79, who lived in apartment 903; Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, who lived in apartment 1002; and Manuel LaFont, 54, who lived in apartment 804.

Sunday night, another four victims' names were made public: Leon Oliwkowicz, 80; Luis Bermudez, 26; Anna Ortiz, 46; and Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74. Their apartment numbers were not shared.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday the focus remains on search-and-rescue.

“When somebody’s missing in action in the military, you’re missing until you’re found. We don’t stop the search, and so I think that’s what’s happening,” he said at a news conference. “Those first responders are breaking their back trying to find anybody they can, and they’re going to continue trying to do that.”

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are planning to visit Surfside on Thursday, the White House said.

“The response and support we have received from federal, state and other partners over the last six days has been unprecedented — this is the single largest non-hurricane emergency operation the state of Florida has ever seen. We are deeply grateful for the support we’ve received from President Biden and the federal administration since day one, and thankful he will be visiting the site of this tragedy to spend time with the impacted families and first responders,” Levin Cava said in a statement. “For the families and our entire Miami-Dade community, this is an important reminder that our county, our state and our nation are giving everything we have to search for the victims of this tragedy and support the families in this incredibly devastating time.”

Levine Cava said Miami-Dade County’s audit of older buildings, particularly those that haven’t yet conducted their 40-year recertification, is under way.

She noted that Monday night a building officer informed the owner of a building in northeast Dade that four balconies needed to be immediately closed to residents because of safety concerns.

She also plans to meet with subject area experts in various fields — including legal, engineering, soil and geology — “to look closely at every possible angle related to building safety."

Searching for answers

As search-and-rescue efforts continue, officials, condo residents and their loved ones, and the greater community, are also seeking answers in the tower’s collapse.

Just two days before the condo tower’s collapse, a commercial pool contractor, who asked not to be named, photographed damage to the building’s basement level garage. They told the Miami Herald that “there was standing water all over the parking garage” and also documented cracking concrete and corroded rebar under the pool.

In April, the Champlain Towers South Condo Board President Jean Wodnicki sent a letter to residents addressing “observable damage” at the building which had “gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection” in 2018, CNN reported.

In the letter, she wrote, “The concrete deterioration is accelerating. The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated. … When you can visually see the concrete spalling (cracking), that means that the rebar holding it together is rusting and deteriorating beneath the surface."

Nearly three years before the building's collapse, a structural engineering firm found "major structural damage" caused by "failed waterproofing" below the pool deck, according to an October 2018 report from Morabito Consultants Inc.

The town of Surfside released all records related to the condo tower, including its preliminary review plans. These documents can be found here.

The report from Morabito said that the concrete structural slab underneath the building's pool was damaged because of the waterproofing and needed repairs.

"Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially," according to the report.

The report also identified other structural issues and recommended additional repairs and updates to the building, though it didn't warn of any imminent danger.

Surfside town inspector Ross Prieto met with the condo's residents to discuss the report in November 2018 and told them the building was "in very good shape," NPR reported.

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