Page 9 - The Engineer News Today

Development in the surfside condo collapse, 22 are dead and 126 are still missing. as the state prepares for hurricane elsa to make landfall next week, a possible huge disruption to these search efforts. demands for answers are growing. this morning, one of the residents who survived the collapse, has now filed a lawsuit against the property, the second lawsuit made public since the collapse. hes claiming the condo association knew the building was deteriorating. joining me right now is the atto...

Frustration or disputes over the repairs that needed to happen and the assessments, very expensive seesments that were going on, all the condominium owners. what do you make of that? >> the homeowners association generally are made up of individuals who not necessarily have knowledge of engineering or construction. it leads to frustration or politics, if you will, within the current homeowners association as to where the money should be spent and how it should be spent on the repairs, the mainte...

The idea of the people who had their finger in this, you got to help us understand what that means as i appoint of clarification. we had a forensic exappropert w looks at collapses, as a man who knows the area and suggested, without proof of this particular building, and that matter, that sometimes boards in this area would pick people because of their rates and not their expertise, and that thats something that has to be looked at with who does the inspections and who oversees that. does that r...

This is dangerous and he calls their attention to it, they dont need to get into alarmist language. at least, i dont do that. ive seen many concrete damages where i do use that same language. but if it comes to the point where it is life-threatening, thats up to the engineers judgment to use that strong language. either way, if the engineer said that these -- this is a dangerous situation, they should have taken him at his word. to me thats it. ive been in many situations where i use that langua...

Showed spalling in the concrete, cracks in the concrete, water on the ground there. you know about the 2018 report that was done by the engineer. does any of that raise red flags for you? >> [ audio difficulty ]. you know, while some of those things -- ive seen things like that in lots of buildings. the bottom line is you have this particular building, and a lot of buildings, you have the building tower and then the first floor and the basement stick out further than the tower in the plan, and t...

Where i do use that same language. but if it comes to the point where it is life-threatening, thats up to the engineers judgment to use that strong language. either way, if the engineer said that these -- this is a dangerous situation, they should have taken him at his word. to me thats it. ive been in many situations where i use that language and the boards for whatever reason, they want to kick the can down the road, we cant afford it, et cetera, et cetera. the engineers hands are pretty much ...

Precipitate the collapse. what you want to do is try to find the trigger. >> if you can hear me, allyn, youve obviously seen the pictures in the "miami herald" from a pool contractor that showed cracks in the concrete, water on the ground there. you know about the 2018 report that was done by the engineer. does any of that raise red flags for you? >> you know, while some of those things -- ive seen things like that in lots of buildings. the bottom line is you have this particular building, and a...

At this point this is not about blame. im coming to you for perspective, not for accountability. not yet, anyway. the idea of the people who had their finger in this, you got to help us understand what that means as i appoint of clarification. as a man who knows the area and suggested, without proof of this particular building, and that matter, that sometimes boards in this area would pick people because of their rates and not their expertise, and that thats something that has to be looked at wi...

Right behind it. >> so, the mayor of miami-dade said that the building audit has already uncovered serious issues including a building closing four balconies previously due to safety concerns. i assume you expect to hear more and more reports like that. >> well, i had heard of that report, but it would not surprise me because i saw the pictures from the engineer, the 2018 report. there were balconies that had this type of spaulding that were talking about. and, again, for a balcony -- excuse me,...

Welcome back. im wolf blitzer in surfside, florida. were live here at site of the deadly condo building collapse. rescuers are now on day six of their desperate, desperate search and rescue mission. were learning that there were, there were several warning signs before this tragedy. cnn has now obtained a letter from the president of the condo board written back in april just a couple of months or so ago that one, the buildings condition had deteriorated significantly in the three years since th...