Death toll rises to 9 in Miami-area condo collapse

Responders at collapsed Florida condo
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Search and rescue workers have discovered eight bodies while carefully excavating a 12-story condo in Surfside, Florida, that collapsed early Thursday, and a ninth victim died in the hospital, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Sunday. Four recovered bodies have been identified, and 156 residents of the Champlain Towers South are unaccounted for. It isn't yet clear what caused the deadly collapse, but a 2018 engineering report released by Surfside over the weekend warned of "major structural damage" in the condo tower's pool deck slab and "abundant cracking and spalling" of concrete columns, beams, and walls in the building's parking garage. Repairs were underway on the building's roof before the collapse, but "concrete restoration had not yet begun," the engineering firm that wrote the report, Morabito Consultants, said Saturday.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.