Fran Sevcik and Debra Cohen sat together Tuesday morning at the Surfside building collapse memorial ceremony, grateful to be surrounded by so many people to share in their grief at losing two dear relatives, Gary and Brad Cohen, both of whom were Debra Cohen's adult sons.
“ I thought it was a beautiful ceremony and a tribute, but there's a long way to go," Sevcik, Gary Cohen's aunt, told WLRN. "This is something that really was a big hole in our community and remains, I think, for many, many years to come.”
Like so many families with relatives who died on June 24, 2021, when the 12-story Champlain Towers South condominium building suddenly collapsed, killing 98 people, Sevcik and Cohen say the mystery of why the massive building crumbled to the ground remains with them.
At a press conference before Tuesday's memorial ceremony, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett called for further investigation into what caused the building collapse.
“ We've been frustrated because we've spent millions of dollars trying to get the answer,” he said. “It still doesn't exist, and all that money has been flushed down the toilet.”
Burkett said the town hired a private investigator to find out why the 12-story condo collapsed, but was not allowed to visit the site.
Burkett said that the government agency in charge of the investigation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, didn’t interview him or many others who were at the site of the destruction on June 24, 2021. The NIST may be years away from issuing a final report.
Burkett said survivors said “they heard explosions, but that point has never been raised.” He added that he never received confirmation if explosive residue testing was done by NIST.
The Champlain Towers South building had a history of maintenance problems, and questions have been raised about the quality of its original construction and inspections in the early 1980s. Other possible factors in the collapse are sea level rise caused by climate change, which could cause damage from saltwater intrusion.
Martin Langesfeld, the brother of Nikki Langesfeld, a lawyer who died with her husband, Luis Sadovnic, in the condo building collapse, said he, too, is frustrated and angry.
“ My family was killed four years ago, not by a natural disaster, but by faulty inspections, careless and negligent approvals, money and greed,” Langesfeld said.
READ MORE: Luxury condo project planned for Surfside site where building collapse killed 98 people
He said he's especially angry at the site of the tragedy that killed his family members and so many others is now being rebuilt as a 12-story luxury condominium project by DAMAC international, a Dubai-based developer.
“Today, the hole behind me is now covered in cranes and construction material,” he said. “ This land was sold before I was able to have a proper burial for my sister and recover her remains.”
The billionaire developer from Dubai purchased the 1.8-acre beachside site for $120 million, contributing to the settlement.
Nikki and Martin's father, Pablo Langesfeld, said “ this site should still be a crime scene — it should not be a business opportunity.”
Among the survivors who spoke at the memorial were Mara Chouela and Deven Gonzalez.
"In the end, we were paid pennies on the dollar and left to wear the weight of a tragedy we didn't cause,” Chouela said. “We were left, not just grieving, but struggling as if surviving was a shame to carry.”
Gonzalez, who was 16 at the time, suffered a broken leg and lost her father, Edga,. Her and her mother, Angela, were seriously injured.
“ We all still feel there's this assumption from people and outsiders that aren't a part of the Surfside community,” Gonzalez said, “that because we received compensation after the collapse, our lives must be fine now, that we should be grateful that we somehow moved on. But what so many failed to see is that money came at the cost of everything I ever knew and we ever knew. It's what I can only describe as blood money.”
