98 people were killed when the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South apartment in Surfside collapsed around 1:30 am on June 24, 2021. Raisa Rodriguez was on the ninth floor of the building and was somehow still on her feet.
“I was fast asleep and I heard this terrible sound, and I didn’t know what it was. It felt like a mountain was about to collapse. And after two seconds, all I remember is that I was thrown out of bed and I landed in front of the bed.” Rodriguez told Sharin Alfonsi on this week’s 60 Minutes program. “And a small balcony. I went out and my brain couldn’t count what I was looking at. I said to myself, ‘Where is this building?’ You know, shouting at that moment: “Where is the building?” ”
“There was no way I could get out, I think I just popped in, ‘Okay, that’s the way it is. I’m going crazy. I don’t want to die tonight,” Rodriguez said.
Rodericks starts downstairs, helping an elderly neighbor through a dark hallway and the rubble in the stairwell.
It took them over two hours to reach a floor low enough to be rescued from there using a ladder.
More than a year later, all that remains of the building is a concrete scar on the ground. The names of the victims are on the fence around the scene. Among them are pensioners and young families.
The answer may lie in a huge warehouse in Miami that holds the remains of 800 tons of Champlain Towers.
The facility is off-limits to anyone but federal investigators. Now they’re looking for clues in twisted steel and concrete.
Glenn Bell is one of the group’s lead investigators. He gave a 60-minute interview at the headquarters of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which conducts federal investigations in Surfside.
“Our timeline for this investigation is to complete our technical findings by fall 2023,” Alfonsi said. “Then we have to process our report and recommendations. We’re looking at fall 2024.”
“A lot of people in Florida don’t understand why it’s taking so long,” Alfonsi said.
“I want them to know that we are working as quickly as possible,” Bell said. “And the implications for our findings are enormous. We have to do it right.”
Based on the results, Bell’s team will recommend any necessary changes to building codes or building practices nationwide.
“We have over 600 structures that we will be testing a lot,” Bell said. “And the more you put together, the more pieces of the puzzle and story you get.”
“Right now we are looking at about two dozen hypotheses about what might be the cause,” Bell said.
Possibilities include poor construction, poor design, or defective materials. Glen Bell is fired from an engineering team investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks in an attempt to solve the mystery of Surfside.
“For over 40 years, I have failed in investigations. I can say that this particular investigation is one of the most complex and complex ever conducted,” Bell said. “Sometimes in the case of construction failures, the immediate cause is relatively obvious. More than a year later, we at Champlain Towers do not have any such obvious cause.”
Last spring, researchers began scanning the wreckage into a vast database in 3D. Preliminary laboratory testing of the building material began in August. Bell said that if investigators find anything that poses a danger to other buildings, they will find it immediately.
“Is it possible that after the investigation you don’t know what caused the collapse of the building?” Alfonsi asked.
Back in Surfside, Allyn Kilsheimer said the investigation should not go on for another two years. Hours after the collapse, the city of Surfside hired him to investigate.
“We have to get to the trigger point. If you know how to listen, I always say that the building will speak to you,” said Kilsheimer. “He finds a way to support himself or ends up saying, ‘I give up. I can’t support him. I will fall.”
Renowned engineer Kilsheimer was part of the investigation team after the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City and the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon. But when Surfside investigated, Kilsheimer said he was about eight months behind where he wanted to be. That’s because he’s still negotiating with federal investigators to get permission to conduct his own testing of building samples locked up in that warehouse.