In the early morning hours of Thursday, July 24, the oceanfront Champlain Towers South Condo, a 12-story building in Surfside, Florida, collapsed, devastating the community. According to the Miami Herald, the cause of the partial collapse, which left a pile of rubble two stories high, is unknown. Rescue workers said approximately 55 units in the tower had collapsed.
Surfside officials call the situation dire. One person has been confirmed dead, while as many as 99 residents are still missing.
Witnesses said the disaster arrived unexpectedly while most residents were still in bed. The tower at 8777 Collins Ave. crumpled with “a bang that just kept on going,” one witness said, a little after 1:30 a.m.
“It’s the unimaginable,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “It’s a terrible, terrible nightmare that we have here on Surfside.”
Security camera footage of the collapse looked eerily similar to a controlled demolition, minus the flash of explosives. The center of the tower gave way first, with the rest of the structure collapsing into a pile of rubble. The cause of the collapse is unknown, though one building expert deemed it “an oddity of biblical proportions” for the 40-year-old structure to fall unexpectedly.
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