Surfside Condo Collapse

Steve Rosenthal, 72, lost the Champlain Towers South apartment he lived in for 20 years. He had planned to sell it in a few years, after paying his assessment to complete required repairs and improvements on the Surfside building. Now, he no longer has a home of his own and says he's worried about affording his retirement.

An estimated $750,000 in randomly scattered cash that was recovered in the rubble of the Surfside condo collapse will soon be driven in an armored truck to Washington, D.C., and converted into a lump-sum payment — courtesy of the Treasury Department for the benefit of residents who lost the money in the summer tragedy.

Miami-Dade County has suggested disposing of some Champlain Towers South condo building remnants that they deem no longer have evidentiary value, but a number of victims' family members worry that human remains could still be in that rubble that's stored outdoors in Doral.

The HistoryMiami museum took down items on the Surfside memorial wall, that honored the victims of the Champlain Towers South collapse, to care for them and preserve them as the peak of hurricane season looms.

The Surfside commission on Tuesday rejected a proposal to build a memorial to the victims of the Surfside condo collapse by trading public land to the eventual buyer of the property where the Champlain Towers South fell.

Rabbi Yossi Harlig is a chaplain with the Miami Dade County Police Department and director of the Chabad Center of Kendall/Pinecrest. He spent weeks in Surfside, working with the police officers, rescuers and families of victims.

Four weeks ago, the Champlain Towers South condo building collapsed in Surfside, in early hours of June 24. Since then, 97 people have been identified as dead. WLRN has spent the past few weeks in Surfside speaking to folks who lost loved ones in the catastrophe, people who rushed to help in the aftermath or who’ve played a role in helping the community grieve.

Judith Mitrani-Reiser, who works for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida, announced the members of the team Wednesday — and said the mission feels personal. Her parents fled Cuba with her and her sister and arrived in Miami in 1980, when Mitrani-Reiser was 2 years old.

Thomas Hoyer, better known as Tom, brings more than three decades of financial experience to the Support Surfside Steering Committee to help get donations to survivors and victims's families. He brings personal experience, too. He lost his son Luke in the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Officials had vowed to continue the search for people among roughly 11 tons of rubble that remained until all missing persons had been recovered. Now firefighters have finished their search.

Members of an obscure Miami-Dade County board are pushing to work through the backlog in the wake of the Surfside condo collapse.

After the Champlain Towers South building collapsed last Thursday, people across Miami-Dade County and the rest of South Florida have been worried about the safety of their own condo buildings.

Crews continue to find the bodies of those who died during a recent condo collapse. There is another objective for those sifting through the rubble: collecting the property of the victims.

Scientists are quick to say climate change may have played no role in the collapse and making a connection is not simple. Linking impacts is typically based on many events. But they say more intense hurricanes, worse flooding, more rainfall and other impacts mean South Florida buildings face harsher conditions.

A growing Orthodox synagogue, The Shul Jewish Community Center, sits just at the line between Surfside and Bal Harbour, and is part of a community supporting each other and their neighbors during the Champlain Towers catastrophe.

In Surfside, Fla., rescue and recovery crews are among those struggling with tremendous grief over the condo building's collapse. Some who do such work repeatedly have found ways to cope.

Most unpaid, volunteer condo board members are not engineers or architects. Yet, they are charged with keeping fellow residents safe and navigating the red tape of local government. Now some are asking for help.

After 14 days of searching, the operation now turns to a "recovery" phase. None of the victims recovered from the wreckage as of Wednesday morning survived the initial collapse, authorities said.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Sandy Ala, a counselor working with Jewish Community Services of South Florida, who has been talking with survivors and families waiting for news in Surfside.

Officials in Miami-Dade County leveled the remaining section of the Champlain Towers South condo ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa. They said the unstable building was a danger to search efforts.

Preparations are underway in Surfside, Fla. for the demolition of a portion of the Champlain Towers South still standing after much of it collapsed in the early morning of Thursday, June 24.

The Champlain Towers South condo association will now be overseen by a receiver who will handle all of the association's financial matters. It comes as questions swirl about the condo's collapse.

A November 2020 presentation to residents of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., prepared them for the expensive repairs ahead and warned that "shouting at each other doesn't work!"

As recently as last month, Surfside, Fla., officials were ordering changes at Champlain Towers South. But the demands never focused on the building's fundamental soundness.

At least three lawsuits have been filed in the partial collapse of the building in Surfside, Fla., and attorneys say more are coming. The latest includes the story of one resident's harrowing escape.

Latin Americans are major buyers of South Florida condominiums and many feared lost in Surfside are from that region. Realtors and experts say it likely won't affect future interest.

In Paraguay and Florida, the tragedy of a poor, but diligent and compassionate, nursing student has taken on special meaning in the Surfside condo collapse.

About a block from the Surfside beachfront condominium tower that collapsed sits its sister building. It was erected a year later by the same company, using the same materials and a similar design.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology was given the authority to investigate building collapses after the attacks of 9/11. Now, six researchers are in Surfside gathering information about Thursday's partial building collapse.

The 2018 report found major damage to the concrete structural slab below the pool deck and warned that extensive repairs would be needed soon. The mayor is considering evacuating a sister building.

"The concrete deterioration is accelerating," the Champlain Towers South's condo board president wrote as she asked for a $15 million special assessment for major structural repairs.

The partial collapse of a building in Surfside, just north of Miami Beach, has left at least 11 people dead, many injured, and dozens missing. Here are some ways to give back.

Surfside officials have released a nine-page structural engineering report by Morabito Consultants, Inc. that detailed extensive problems and repairs needed at the Champlain Towers South condo building.

The latest update from Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul, South Florida organizations join forces to collect relief funds for survivors and their families and a dive into the history of the county's 40-year building recertification program.

Engineer John Pistorino was a newly licensed engineer working for Miami-Dade County when the DEA building collapse led him to create the inspection program.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and several other agencies responded to the scene in Surfside, off Collins Avenue just north of Miami Beach, and worked to rescue people following the collapse at the Champlain Towers condo building.