FLORIDA CONDO COLLAPSE
JULY 2021
WRITTEN BY KAVYA GURUNATH EDITED BY GRACE YOON, UDAY LINGAMPALLI, CINDY ZHANG LAYOUT BY ALICIA GUO ART BY THEJO TATTALA Blurb: On June 24, 2021, a condo building in Miami collapsed, leading to many deaths and people missing. This article breaks down the tragedy and what went wrong. A home is one’s safe place. A place one can go to and let go of any frustrations, wind down and get comfortable. It is a haven from the craziness of the outside world. However, for people living in Champlain Towers South, their home, their safe place, turned into a death trap. Champlain Towers is a high-rise condo building in Miami, Florida. On June 24, 2021, the condo partially collapsed. At least 95 people are confirmed to have been killed, and the search continues to find everyone else missing from the collapse. Usually, the disasters we hear about are natural. However, this collapse wasn’t caused by an earthquake or a tornado. It came out of nowhere.
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Residents of Champlain Towers originally thought that the loud noise they heard was thunder. A survivor of the collapse, Bruno Treptow, states that he thought the roof was caving in. He hugged his wife and thought it was the end for him. Another survivor, Alfredo Lopez, who lived about five feet away from the part of the building that collapsed, says that where the hallway was supposed to be, there was nothing. A building that was 120 feet had collapsed into rubble (Staff, 2021). As rescue efforts continue, the discussion has turned to the cause of the collapse, which has not yet been determined. Engineer Greg Batista says that the pool deck fell into the parking area, and created a “domino effect” that caused the rest of the building to come down (Staff, 2021).
FLORIDA CON
