Silent sorrow
Board in ’21 told Florida owners problems had grown ‘worse’
People view a makeshift memorial Tuesday outside St. Joseph Catholic Church in Surfside, Fla., as the search continues for victims of the nearby Champlain Towers South Condominium collapse and the death toll rose to 12. In April, the president of the building’s board warned owners that problems found in a 2018 inspection had worsened “significantly” and at least $15.5 million was needed for repairs. The letter hinted at reluctance by some condo owners to pay for the work.
Weeks before a Florida condominium building collapsed, the president of its board wrote that structural problems identified in a 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and owners needed to pay a hefty price to get them fixed.
The April 9 “Dear Neighbors” letter from Jean Wodnicki of the Champlain Towers South Condominium board hinted at an ongoing debate over the repairs and a reluctance by some condo owners to pay for major work that would cost at least $15.5 million.
“A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now,” she wrote in the letter, which was confirmed to The Associated Press by a spokesman for the condo board.
Wodnicki noted costs had increased since an October 2018 report by engineering firm Morabito Consultants first identified key concerns about weakening concrete, and she predicted they would only grow more if put off any longer.
The letter also shows that, in April, a bid package for the major concrete and waterproofing work was still being discussed. The plan was to open those bids on June 8, but it’s not clear from documents released to date whether that happened.
Wodnicki did not immediately respond to phone, email and text messages seeking comment.
Just over two months later and with bids for the work still pending, the 12-story Champlain Towers South building in Surfside tumbled down early Thursday. While the structural problems from the 2018 inspection have come under intense scrutiny, no definitive cause has been identified for the collapse.
On the sixth day of the painstaking search for the missing, another victim was recovered, raising the confirmed deaths to 12, with 149 people unaccounted for. Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to continue the search and to leave no one behind.
Authorities said it’s still a search-and-rescue operation, but no one has been found alive since hours after the collapse Thursday.
Florida emergency management officials have requested additional search teams from federal government, and the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Surfside on Thursday
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will pursue a grand jury investigation to examine factors and decisions that led to the collapse. She said she would take the matter before grand jurors soon. Previous grand juries in south Florida have examined other largescale disasters, and criminal charges in such matters are possible.
Meanwhile, about a block away from the collapsed tower sits its sister building, erected a year later by the same company, using the same materials and a similar design. Likewise, it has faced the same tides and salty air.
This has made some residents of Champlain Towers North worried enough to leave, though many have remained, saying they are confident their almost 40-yearold, 12-story building is better maintained. They say their building doesn’t have the same problems with cracking in support beams and in the pool area that the 2018 engineering reports show the south tower had.
North tower residents who want to move temporarily are being offered private assistance from Support Surfside, a charity group helping victims of the collapse. The group did a survey of the building’s full-time residents and found about half are staying and half have left. Overall, about half the units are owned by so-called snowbirds, and those residents left before the collapse, the group’s survey showed. Overall, 28 of the 113 units are currently occupied, the group found.
Surfside Charles Mayor Burkett said a deep-dive inspection of the north tower will be conducted Tuesday by an engineering firm hired by the residents. The town will inspect other older buildings soon. Given the results of the preliminary examination of the north tower, Burkett said he doesn’t see a reason to order an evacuation. Still, he said, he’s not sure he would stay there.
“If you asked me if I wanted to spend the night in that building, I’d be a little … I wouldn’t be willing to do that until we went through it,” he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Curt Anderson, Bernard Condon, Terry Spencer, Kelli Kennedy, Bobby Caina Calvan, Freida Frisaro, Russ Bynum, Adriana Gomez Licon and staff members of The Associated Press.