Florida building collapse: Emergency response after incident in Surfside near Miami

Update: The standing part of this building is now down

The rescue efforts are resuming as soon as the dust clears.

It happens at 10 minutes.

Man, they're going to have to guard that building with a freaking army of police now. The part of the building they just demo'd is a treasure hunter's dream come true! Every panhandler, vagabond and scavenger in the eastern US is probably headed down there now. I know it's sick and macabre, but sick and macabre goes out the window when there's free money to be had. People are sick and macabre that way.

Normally when they demo a building like this they remove everything and scrub the building clean first. This one they brought down, belongings and all. That rubble is chocked full of jewelry, money, valuable documents, incriminating stuff, collectables, sentimental items which families would gladly pay for...it's endless! Plus, all the really valuable stuff is near the top too because this is the least likely to have been removed and where the wealthiest residents lived.

Heck, they're even going to need to keep an eye on the people in the recovery effort too. I'm sure most are great folks, but you just know there's going to be some who feel like they're entitled to some spoils for their efforts. Plus, now that this has turned from a rescue effort into a recovery effort there will be a lot less scrutiny on people's efforts.

It's also a toxic mess too. Rotten food, all manner of chemicals, waste lines, bacteria, you name it.

a reply to: beyondknowledge

Re: www.foxnews.com...

So, they bring down the rest of the building on top of those who were injured and killed last week, and begin rescue efforts again? That's how this reads. Sounds Three-Stooges-like.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I doubt anyone can get near it and even if they could, I'm sure everything's been destroyed for the most part.

a reply to: carewemust

They brought down the remaining part of the building because they could not dig out the debris close to it. Dig out the wrong part and it might fall on them.

Also there was the fear that the approaching storm might blow it over onto the part they were searching in.

No significant debris from the standing part went on top of the existing rubble pile. Just lots of dust.

Update: The search should proceed faster now that the danger of the rest of the building collapsing is gone.

27 deceased
118 unaccounted for

The Isrealy team is heading home. A few are staying longer to help with the reorganization of the search. There leader doesn’t have much hope for finding survivors.
Yahoo

Most of the news about this disaster is just being recycled from other previously listed articles. I am trying not to post the repeats.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk
Debris from the site, after being screened for human remains and personal effects is being sent to a secondary site for further screening

Same process was used at WTC during recovery and cleanup

a reply to: firerescue

Yeah, I read about that previously. Still, I'll bet there are folks following those debris trucks everywhere they go.

Understand about WTC, but that was quite a bit different in terms of what was in the rubble.

Update: A total of four have been recovered after the standing part of the building was demolished.

28 deceased
117 unaccounted for

This article explains why and how the standing part was demolished.
AP

The storm, closing in on western Florida, is still remaining somewhat unpredictable but will still affect the search area with some heavy rain and high wind.

Update: Eight more were recovered today

36 deceased
109 unaccounted for

The search has expanded into the area where the standing portion was threatning to fall. They are now able to get to the whole original rubble pile. This new search area is where most of the bedrooms for the condos that were in that part of the building were.

The storm seems to be progressing northerly off the west coast of Florida. Miami is still getting some heavy rain and high winds at times from it.

The expectation of finding survivors is waining as they are not finding survivable pockets in the rubble as they search.
AP News

The news articles on this have slowed down. I think mainly because there is little hope of finding survivors at this point. Unless there is some significant breaking news on this disaster, I am going to update once a day.

a reply to: jrod

What metric are you using to determine the sea level is rising?

TheRedneck

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Not to mention, the skeleton of any high-rise is designed specifically to prevent lateral motion if the structure collapses. As bad as this scenario is, can you imagine how much worse it would be if the building fell sideways into another, which fell sideways into another, which fell sideways into another... ad infinitum until the city limits are reached?

I worked for many years in structural design. The steel in a high-rise simply cannot fall sideways... if the forces get high enough to do so, they are far, far beyond what it would take to fall down straight. I would assume even a concrete structure would be similarly designed.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

There have been a couple structures which have toppled sideways in the past, but these were generally either very unusual structures, controlled demolitions gone wildly wrong or some combination thereof, but it is exceptionally rare. I actually witnessed one in person once. This was the tallest building ever brought down with controlled demolition at the time. It was the JL Hudsons building in Detroit. We were with the Mayor of Detroit and some of the executives at Controlled Demolition Inc, and I got to talk with some of the CDI guys. I was surprised it was the "tallest" building, and thought I had seen taller be brought down. What CDI said was, there have been taller, but they weren't 'buildings'; they were things like towers and smokestacks etc.

The building was 439 feet tall (not including the 110 foot mast at the top). They said at the time said that anything above that height in a heavily populated city will usually be brought down in pieces by crane until it gets down below 450 feet. The reason? To reduce the risk of a malfunction bringing down or heavily damaging an adjacent building. Below this height the building being demolished can't develop enough lateral energy to fall much outside the footprint of its center of gravity. However, shortly after hearing this, I stood there and watched part of the Hudson's Building do just that as a section of building buckled out sideways and took out a portion of the rail system of the Detroit People Mover. We were on a nearby rooftop of a parking garage with the Mayor and all the news media at the time, so there wasn't much time to debate the topic after the building came down before the dust cloud from the demolition was on top of us and everyone scattered. But several hours later after the dust cleared it was clear that a section of the People Mover main concrete guideway had in fact been brought down by the building demolition. It took nearly a year to reconstruct it. Overall though, they did a spectacular job all things considered. It was a massive building.

Here's a video of the event...



Probably the worst example I've seen is this video I found on YT while researching the above...



Anyway, it does happen, but as noted it is pretty rare.

Update: The rescue is officially changing to recovery

54 deceased
86 unaccounted for

As has been stated, the way this building collapsed, it left almost no room between the floors. The searchers are not finding any open areas large enough to survive in. This, along with the fires that lasted for days and the fact it has been fourteen days since the collapse, it is very unlikely for anyone to have survived trapped in the rubble. The change over to recovery will be at midnight eastern time tonight. This mainly changes the way the search work is done. Instead of probing for open areas deep within the rubble, the rubble will be removed from the top down.
USA Today

Update: Ten more recovered today

64 deceased
76 unaccounted for

More information is coming froward about the reports from the engineering frim that looked at the structures of this building at least two times. The condo association is still stating that they had no sense of urgency for the repairs needed to this buildings support structure from the engingeering companies reports. I think the condo association did not understand what the reports actually said.
NPR

It seems a Florida law from 2008 that was repealed in 2010 could have helped with the needed repairs had it been left in place.
NBC News

update: 15 more recovered today

79 deceased
61 unaccounted for

There are currently 53 of the victims identified.

About 60 dump trucks a day are hauling out debris. As of today, there has been over 13 million pounds of rubble removed from the collapse site.

The NIST, National Institute of Standarda and Technology, has been taking samples of the rubble as evidence in the investigation of the cause of the collapse. Over 200 samples have been gathered and tagged so far.

Concrete samples are also being taken from the sister building to this one. It is a few blocks away and was made by the same developer at the same time with similar plans to the collapsed building. They have not found any indication of a similar level of deterioration of the structure in that building yet.

Most of the articles I am finding are a day or more old so I am going to have to use this one because it is most up to date.
CNN

a reply to: beyondknowledge

I just want to thank you for staying on top of this. After all the initial arguing is over, it can be a pretty lonely job to continue posting (seemingly) alone.

You're not alone. Some of us are still reading, but we just don't have anything to add. Thank you.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Well said!

This one event is a warning!

P

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
a reply to: turbonium1

Furthermore, the only quasi-reasoning you have of a 'controlled demolition' is the fact that the building pancaked. High-rise buildings rarely, if ever, topple over sideways. You know why? It's this thing called "GRAVITY". There is no potential energy to make them move laterally, so they go straight down...ALWAYS!

Just look at the World Trade Center's after 9-11. Two 100 ton airliners flew into the sides of both of those buildings at 300+ mph, and what direction did they fall??? Answer - STRAIGHT DOWN! If there was ever an event to topple a building sideways it would have been that one, but it wasn't! So, why on God's green Earth would you ever think some random condominium building on the beach in Florida would fall any other way after having the foundation taken out from underneath it??????????

Seriously, don't be an idiot! My GAWD! Seriously, get a grip on yourself!

I've never said the buildings would have collapsed sideways, if it were a 'natural', or 'random' collapse, so don't say I did.

The most obvious indication it was a CD, without any doubt at all, is the absolute lack of resistance to the collapse. This cannot happen unless all supports are removed, in sequence, floor by floor downward, a fraction apart, in precise sequence.

If you think it's possible to collapse buildings within seconds, like this, by random failure, of ANY type, ANYWHERE in the building, let's say, along the whole basement area, or whatever you choose, it will never cause a total collapse within seconds, ever!

I'm sure you've seen buildings after a bombing raid, or tank shells...they are half blasted away, skeletons of what they were...so why are most of them still standing, afterwards?

When a building is damaged, the damage is at, or around, that specific area of the structure, not ALL the structure, rught?

Every floor of a building, is actually supporting all the floors above it. So a failure cannot cause total collapse of the building, within seconds, because the rest of the supports still remain, and hold up the structure afterwards.

Real damage, real failures within a structure, even when it's catastrophic failure, such as at the basement floors, will not cause total uniform collapse of a building, within seconds.

Random failure of a structure, cannot have uniform collapse of the entire building within seconds, it is absolutely impossible. Most of the structure remains intact, with it's supports intact, which have always held up the structure, same as before, or after.


Those who don't agree with me on this, must try and replicate such a collapse, in some way, or simply look around, and see it has NEVER been replicated in any way at all, because it isn't POSSIBLE to replicate it, unless by removing all the supports, in a very precise sequence.


I've heard excuse after excuse for not neing able to replicate the collapses on 9/11, I'm sure some will use the same excuses for this horrible event, too.

But they can ALL be replicated, demonstrated, for failure, for collapse, and many were, before they were ever built.

How didn't anyone ever know that a building could totally collapse in seconds, by local damage, from countless testing, research, studies, expert knowledge of structures? No such collapse happened 3 times on the same day. It can never happen, unless by removing all the supports in a rapid, precise sequence.

a reply to: turbonium1

My first job out of high school was dealing with structural steel supports. My second was designing steel buildings.

Yes, it can and yes, it will collapse downward without apparent resistance under the right conditions. All a controlled demolition does is recreate those conditions. They can also be created any number of other ways naturally. Once the collapse begins, each floor produces a massive impact load to the floor beneath it, causing each floor to break free in quick succession... a quick, smooth motion until it all hits the ground.

If people were to buy into your uneducated hypothesis, it would make sense to not even bother with the second building inspection; if it isn't rigged with explosives, there's no danger, right? But there is danger because the soil itself is unstable under that kind of loading. I'm glad you can ignore that possibility. I cannot in good faith do so.

Those who don't agree with me on this, must try and replicate such a collapse

Nope.

I'm also not going to spend time verifying that gravity exists; I'm not going to design an experiment to verify Ohm's Law; I'm not going to test to see if I can grow corn from a peachtree seed; I'm not going to waste my time proving the sky is blue. Some things are simply known, such as wet sand shifting under load, and need not be re-proven every time someone decides that they don't believe it's true. That's why we have these things called "books."

TheRedneck