Destined to Fail: The Surfside Condominium Collapse 2021 | Plainly Difficult | Short Documentary

On 24 June , 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, collapsed....
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08:27 Issues
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[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for watching, check out me other bits! Outro song: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqmniHpsabmSsMk Instagram: instagram.com/plainly.john/ Patreon: www.patreon.com/Plainlydifficult Merch: plainly-difficult.creator-spring.com Twitter:twitter.com/Plainly_D

[@allthebluelights1604]

0000ppoooopp0 is 5th 000😊

[@paulrasmussen8953]

To add in another guy an engineer look at pics of apartments before collapse. Massive renkvatio s hapen where cheap light weight stuff was replaced with heavy Granite which added to the weight stress. But maitance was a big thing. North was basically a twin but a tad smaller and its telatively fine. Board is the big factor

[@davidbalcon8726]

Clearly shows why states must regulate condominiums and require Reserve Funds and plans for ongoing upgrading. We have that in all Canadian provinces. But of course, it’s Ron DeSantis’s Florida paradise of low taxes and small government (unless you want to read certain books or study Black & Aboriginal history, be a woman controlling her own body…)!

[@paulrasmussen8953]

@David Balcon dude uts not just her body there is another in there. Maybe she shouldn't spread her legs if she didn't want a kid. While bit more regulation was needed and note they did shorten the time between recertifications

[@darthkarl99]

@@paulrasmussen8953 And maybe people like you should stay out of people's private lives. America is functionally the only developed nation where the abortion is in serious debate.

[@measlyfurball37]

My professor was one of the people who was deployed to respond to the collapse in a specialist rescue unit. She recalled the most difficult decision was to stop looking for survivors in the hours following the incident until the remaining standing portion of the building could be assessed for stability. The decision still haunts her- had they simply taken the risk, they might've rescued more people alive, but if the building *had* collapsed on the rescue teams, it would've been even worse. She teaches an emergency management class now, and she emphasizes the importance of ensuring that there's no secondary casualties amongst first responders in a disaster. A powerful, harsh lesson indeed.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

It's definitely the most difficult choice, for sure. I was honestly shocked they were even working under the shadow of the building in the first place! But I knew that as soon as a hurricane was announced, their time was basically up. One of the things I wasn't surprised about was them not going into the standing part of the structure to find pets. As tragic as it was, I couldn't fathom risking more lives trying to get those out. Though that does beg the question, did they make any attempts at such?

[@animula6908]

Man, that’s a rough job. God bless her.

[@kittenmatchvids6440]

@@TheEDFLegacy as far as I know they sent out infrared drones/bots to the apartments where people said there were pets, and they didn't find anything

[@mercurialjove460]

Another example of a lesson learned the hard way due to 9/11. In my experience speaking with 9/11 first responders many are more haunted by those lost in 3 WTC and the clean-up just because it seems all so preventable. Of course, with proper building codes and maintenance tragedies at that scale are at least mitigatable if not preventable, and that principle what emergency management and engineering standards are supposed to be about.

[@JoshuaTootell]

During some of my anti terrorism classes (pre 9/11) there were sections on secondary casualties. And in EVERY hazmat class I have taken, it gets talked about A LOT. It's a known problem. But it's also human nature to rush in and help.

[@DigitalNeb]

I'm a building contractor in Florida, and I can't believe these kinds of violations were allowed to go unaddressed. When I build a single family residential home, the city, county, and state all make DAMN sure I do it correctly. They check every stage of construction, and will actually make me tear something apart if it gets built without the proper inspections being completed first. Yet this multi story condominium was allowed to go up with no problems right on the ocean in extreme wind and tidal zones. Unbelievable.

[@SynchroScore]

You're a contractor, not a big-shot property developer. You don't know the right people to talk to, and the right people to pay off.

[@TheJttv]

This was also built 40 years ago...

[@bishoukun]

This was really encouraging to read, so thank you for posting this, and thank you for your hard work!

[@1theredrooster]

@@SynchroScore Bingo

[@neilkurzman4907]

Perhaps you and the other contractors should lobby the Florida legislature so that you don’t have to get your properties inspected properly. Also, nothing you build Hass to be inspected after 40 years. It’s up to the homeowner to maintain it. Just like it’s up to the condominium to be maintained by its owners, also known as the residents

[@MountainCry]

Last year I was on an errand and drove by the empty lot where the collapsed building stood, then continued up the street to its still-standing twin, and it took my breath away to see how big it was. It's absolutely mind-boggling that a building that size, with what was considered multi-million dollar real estate, just FELL DOWN. Unfortunately Florida is full of buildings that were thrown up quickly and sloppily so someone could get paid, and whatever happens years later isn't of consequence to them.

[@xxcoopcoopxx]

Trump style building. Imagine how bad NY and NJ are. Trump's Casino sign fell down. Shitty builders are a plenty. And then there's our bridges...

Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

[@grmpEqweer]

​@ also money.

[@xxcoopcoopxx]

@ Awww the Edgy Cool Kids are here. Shit got lame real fast. Deuces.

[@pintaco4299]

​@Travis Cooper pretty sure he was inferring to the fact that when it was built cocaine was rampant and a big influence in everything done in Florida when it was built

[@cultofsgc]

My friend was in the building with her family, she was also 5 months pregnant. She, her hubby and 1 year old child didn't make it out 😔

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That’s tragic sorry to hear that

[@Molkatoftime]

I’m so sorry, that’s so messed up 💔

[@dianamerchant1026]

I’m sorry for your loss.

[@spindleblood]

Sorry for your loss. 😢

[@NoBSAffiliateCoaching]

Oh really? 🤔

[@GamingOnWindows]

I'm still shocked that this happened 3 days after I moved out of my unit. It's insane to think that if the sale had gon through any later than it did, I would not be here today. Thankfully, the person who bought my unit from me hadn't started moving in yet, so she was fine.

[@LoganHunter82]

You and her should start doing lottery. That was a close call

[@pr9334]

This was so crazy when it happened. I was so interested on the details. Realized it all boiled down to inspectors ignoring the warning signs.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sadly it’s always the case poorly built and poorly maintained

[@kumquatqueen5975]

The papers where I live tried to chock it up to elevation of sea levels, and left it at that.

[@King_Karnage]

Now it happened in Iowa

[@craigh5236]

@@kumquatqueen5975 Main problem was a lot of rebar was exposed. Once the rebar starts to get exposed it will start rusting inside the concrete. Its a ticking clock.

[@BrownEyePinch]

That's not all true, it was the board infighting about money. The hired inspector should have used stronger language in the report.

[@angelachouinard4581]

I have a friend who lives in a condo building in Florida and there are so many problems in her building it's scary. Most people know so little about construction, they buy property on looks and amenities, and judging by what she said about the places she looked at and what she bought, I'd be willing to bet there are many many more buildings with serious problems.

[@stevie-ray2020]

Here in Australia it's quite common for purchasers, especially investors, to buy off the plan. However, they're almost advertised as 'luxury-apartments', which is rarely an accurate description! Some buildings have had such serious engineering-problems that all the residents have been evacuated at short notice, but why should a bit of proper engineering get in the way of a fast buck!?!

[@viceroybolt3518]

Florida stands as a stark reminder that all those pesky building codes all the other states have were written in blood

[@moosemaimer]

My friend's parents bought a condo near Palm Beach a few years back, and now they're on the hook for something like $15k because the roof isn't up to code. wtf Florida

[@dellahicks7231]

@angelachouinard4581, I agree, it amazes me how many people do not understand deficiencies that are obvious and they can see for themselves. They allow the amenities, view etc to override better judgement. I am not saying that happened in this case, but it is definitely something to keep in mind.

[@bp968]

I refuse to even consider a multifamily construction like a condo after some of the horror stories I've read about (not just in the USA but also Canada, the UK and other places). The most frightening are those repair fees that fall to the residents. Imagine suddenly being told you need to pay another 200,000$ to keep living in the home you thought was paid off!? At least with a single family home I can (and do) buy comprehensive homeowners insurance. Foundation failure? Insurance. Roof collapse? Insurance. Fire? Insurance. Etc. Basically anything that isn't outright intentional destruction of your own property or willful disregard of obvious maintenance is covered by insurance. I won't suddenly get a bill for near or above 100% the value of my home. I'd live in fear of that if I owned a condo since your home is often your largest asset. If you pay off a 200k$ condo and then over 30 years it's value increases to 500k$ your income might very well not keep up. So if you get a bill for 300-400k (its happened) you might not even be able to get a loan for that amount if your retired. And if you don't pay it you can be evicted and lose your home. You can go from having a half million dollar asset you spent a lifetime paying for to homeless because of a scummy property manager or construction company. Nope. If I don't own the land and the home that sits on the land then I'm renting, and if I'm renting then huge maintenance bills are the property owners problem, not mine.

[@hgbugalou]

I have watched hours of videos on this and lurked engineering forums. IMO the pool deck, due to poor maintenance, heavy planters, and water damage collapsed and as it fell it ripped chunks out of the 2 columns in the center part of the building where the collapse started. According to the eyewitness reports, these heavily damaged columns held for 5-10 minutes before catastrophically failing. Them holding was the period people reported "construction noises" as the building struggled to stay upright with critical damage to the structure.

[@SoulDelSol]

The damaged pool deck collapsing isn't an opinion, that happened

[@nukiepoo]

@@SoulDelSolHe said his opinion was that’s were it all started - not that it happens at all. Stupid comment

[@member5488]

I think it started at the grade level parking adjacent to the pool deck. If you look at pictured before a planter box between this area had a large crack and around 4 inches of settling evident at one corner. In post collapse pictures you can see several vehicles still parked there and pretty much all of them weight a lot more than the average vehicle did when the building was designed. One truck alone in the picture would top 6000 pounds meaning it's almost as heavy as two vehicles from the early '80s. The building was marginal as constructed, then they added thousands of pounds of planter boxes and then the ever increasing live load of vehicles around the parking area finally made the initial collapse into the underground parking.

[@edwardschmitt5710]

Yeah this video was terrible in details.

[@SoulDelSol]

@@nukiepoo that's not an opinion either, that's a fact. Nukie poo 🤡

[@princeanxious4942]

"Anything neglected will eventually Fail." Is such a simple sentence but honestly still so impactful for how truthful it is in just about any of these cases. Fits well alongside "Humanities' Greatest weakness is Complacency" from Brick Immortar. Both really good phrases that i know are gonna stick together with me for a good long while. Loved the video!

[@cgi2002]

While true eventually, its not a perfect saying for all circumstances. There are litterally ancient buildings over 2000 years old that have been mostly neglected for hundreds of years at a time that still stand, and many of those exist in places with just as destructive weather, and in earthquake prone zones. Neglect alone won't cause rapid failure, but neglect combined with negligence/incompetence will. In reality alot of these large buildings are already approaching their end of life timeframe but no one will willingly do anything about them. Slapdash repairs will only work for so long, and it's unlikely the owners will willingly knock them down and rebuild due to the costs associated with it.

[@Aesoporific]

Once upon a time Saint Peter's Basilica Vatican collapsed. No fire. No earthquake. No natural disaster. The building just hadn't been kept up and the whole thing just collapsed when the necessary supports failed. Everything made by man will eventually cease to be. How fast that is depends entirely on us.

[@pburgvenom]

Like a marraige

[@MrErizid]

There was an "If All Humans Disappeared" show that predicted the last standing human structure taller than 100 feet to be the Eiffel Tower. Apparently it has so many layers of paint on it, that it will take hundreds of years to start rusting.

[@electrictroy2010]

No the last structures will be the pyramids. Ancient humans built things to last, because it took decades to build them in the first place. They wanted permanent structures

[@hvrock13]

We just had a similar situation happen in Davenport Iowa. Historic Davenport hotel collapsed after years of neglect and city overlooking failed inspections, it’s a huge ordeal going on right now with people still missing and the government wanting to tear it down 2 days later with pets and people still inside. Protests prevented it and they found a woman later that evening alive in the top floor. Even after “confirming” they searched it all and found no survivors. I hope you’ll do a story on that one it would really bring attention to the corruption and pressure for consequences on the slumlord Andrew Wold.

[@notablynova4247]

It's a massive coverup being perpetuated by the City. EVERYONE FROM THE MAYOR DOWN WHO SIGNED OFF THE DEMOLITION BEFORE THE WOMAN WAS RESCUED NEEDS TO TENDER THEIR RESIGNATION IMMEDIATELY. Sincerely, A life long resident of Davenport

[@jan22150]

Corruption is prevalent even here in the US. We are going to be just as bad as the Chinese contractors in China. All because of corruption.

[@beenaplumber8379]

From a neighbor in Minnesota: When that happened, I was shocked. I think everybody here was. I mean, in FL, they have massive corrosion and, shall we say, a reputation for hands-off government. Out west they have earthquakes. But Iowa? That was just shocking, and close to home. Without knowing the facts, if it's as it seems - a slumlord ignoring safety - I hope he rots in that special, smelly corner of hell. It's inexcusable. I've lived under three slumlords, but I never felt my building's safety was at risk. My personal safety, yes, and I'm still dealing with it 5 years after moving out (he was too cheap to make the repairs, and I got a head injury), but I never worried about the building itself.

[@electrictroy2010]

@beenaplumber8379 YOU has an interstate bridge collapse .

[@Mellypepper]

That’s a nightmare. Imagine surviving that and waiting for help and some government head orders the building be torn down with you still inside. It’s almost like they want to hurry up and make it like it never happened even if that mean survivors and pets are killed in the process.

[@CharlieApples]

I was born and raised in South Florida and my uncle was a reasonably prominent real estate developer, so I learned a lot from him. It’s actually not at all uncommon for buildings and houses built this way to collapse over time, but this collapse was truly and completely unprecedented. Things to know about South Florida: • It’s made of sand, and full of sinkholes. The lower half of Florida is basically an enormous sandbar sitting on top of eroding limestone/coral reef skeletons, which is like living on sand on top of a sponge full of water. •It’s extremely rare for buildings to have basements, because you’ll hit groundwater if you dig ~10 ft (3m) down. The closer you are to the ocean, the harder and riskier it is to build a basement. This building was _on_ the beach. • In summer, it rains torrentially almost every single day, and floods very frequently. Miami, specifically, gets hit by at least one hurricane almost every year, without fail. Being outside during a hurricane feels like being trapped inside a wind tunnel full of water with trees and shit flying around. This is why most buildings in South Florida are built out of steel and concrete; it’s the only thing that can withstand annual hurricane force winds and flooding. But even _steel and concrete_ can and will erode over time. Especially if you’re _on_ the beach, where you’ll have additional corrosion and pummeling by tidal waves and sea flooding. Basically, if you’re going to build anything near the beach in South Florida, you need to build it VERY elevated above ground level (which is literally 1 foot above sea level), but you also need to build it like an above ground bomb shelter. Totally solid and with a _very_ good foundation, because again, Florida is made of sand. Things sink in sand. And as sea levels rise, Florida coastlines get pushed further and further inward. The ocean isn’t going to recede in our lifetimes, it’s only going to rise. Edit: autocorrect said “tidal wives” lol Don’t move to Florida

[@dasbof]

Miami did not get hit with any hurricanes for 10 years from 2005 to 2015. How am I sure? Because the entire state of Florida did not get hit by any hurricanes for that same 10 years. Over a decade without any hurricane hitting the entire state. Miami goes very often years without hurricanes.

[@iciajay6891]

If you want house insurance def don't move to Florida XD

[@Cyntaria]

​@@dasbofclimate change dude. I swear every year now I see news about a tropical cyclone/hurricane in Florida or what I assume are neighbouring states. Not to mention here in Australia we've been getting tropical cyclones more frequently than when I was a kid up north

[@MashaRistova]

With how much of Florida will be under water in 50 years, it’s insane that people still buy property there.

[@ferretyluv]

Not just that, but now you can’t get home insurance there. Low taxes don’t mean much when you can’t afford rent and home insurance.

[@TotallyNotRedneckYall]

Florida reminds me of a scene in Holy Grail: "When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up..."

[@mas5867]

what a great movie. My girlfriend was watching for my response and I happened to take a drink during one of the scenes (the ****** scene) and I spit it everywhere.

[@DudokX]

imagine being in the 2nd part that collapsed just seconds later. You got enough time to stand up, realize something horrible is happening, look out of the window and feel floor under your feet give out as the whole building crashes on top of you.

[@SoulDelSol]

That would be awful. I hope no one was pinned alive for days unable to move. That would be a nightmare

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

@@SoulDelSol Iirc, most survivors (the few that there were) got out within the first two days. After that, people had to evacuate because of a hurricane. The majority had no hope.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

I can't imagine it because I would be dead or at the very least wising like Hell, I were dead then and there. Besides, I don't think anyone can imagine something after they die. Maybe Slim Slamberly or Slam Slimberly.

[@Pugetwitch]

​@@BlackMoonHowlsThat's not how imagination works. You're not really there. You're imagining that you're there.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

It sounds like they had more warning than that. "Construction noises" what? Around 10 minutes prior, did I read in one of the comments? It was at night, anybody see any construction going on? You are in the Twin Towers and a supposed airplane, or some pre-rigged explosion, there seems to be several theories what really happened, hits the other tower. You do not yet know what is the actual scenario. You are in the fictional movie, _The Towering Inferno,_ okay you probably did not know the name of the movie at the time, and you hear that there is a "small fire 50 floors below". What do you think you should do? You are at the site of a serious nightclub fire, that hasn't happened just yet, and you notice that the place is unsafely overcrowded. What could possibly go wrong? How about evacuate first as a precaution and ask questions later? You say to your friends, "It doesn't feel right, let's just quietly leave, Now. Grab your stuff." No need to cause a panic. If you evacuate for not-so-good of a reason, the cost is small and you can go back in once you realize that the danger was merely imagined or can't really find what the problem is. Maybe go back tomorrow, you needed an excuse to go visit a friend or relative anyway. But if you fail to evacuate in time and you are wrong, the cost is very large. In some of those disaster movies, I kind of ask the question, "What was the warning sign that maybe it is urgent time to evacuate, before it becomes too late?" Attending a Grand Opening party before the fire sprinkler system has been put online. Is that a good idea? Sounds like a setup for a disaster movie. Well the people in that movie probably weren't informed of that. But if the fire is still "small", just how long do we expect for it to stay small? If it was that minor, they probably wouldn't even tell us about it. Time to rush down the steps already. It may be 2 minutes at least before you can get below where the fire was said to be. Not wait for the rush of people trying to take the elevator. If you are wrong, you miss the party. There will be other parties. You probably won't get a promotion from hanging around all those rich and influential people anyway. But if you evacuate as a precaution and you are right, you avoid a much higher cost. Apparently, it is too easy to miss the warning signs. Perhaps if we gave it a bit more careful thought? When I was in college, we had too many fire drills. In a concrete building that seemed like it would be rather safe. It had a fire escape stairwell, that just had open-air openings, so that smoke couldn't possibly build up. I recall just grabbing my books and going to class or going to the dining facility. Yawn, another needless evacuation, but then I do have somewhere else I can go for a short while anyway. Might as well leave.

[@MarianneKat]

"My civil engineer dad would never have signed off on this" is one of my dad's best legacies. He was PLAINLY DIFFICULT to work with, but being a genius/ perfectionist he was annoyingly always right, so his projects lasted. ❤

[@lymarie1974]

What a wonderful legacy ❤.

[@rezzophantasma]

How things should be. Your dad sounds awesome.

[@stevie-ray2020]

One civil-engineer on his YT channel described how poorly the columns in the carpark were constructed, being too small an area in cross-section, with no pads at the top of them to spread the load of the slab above, causing the columns to simply 'punch' through!

[@thedukeofbork3147]

@@stevie-ray2020 Brick Immortar

[@Praisethesunson]

That's fine. He would have been replaced with a more bribable engineer by whatever real estate conglomerates build these.

[@AndyFletcherX31]

Josh Porter of the "Building Integrity" KZbin channel has done a very good series on this collapse in which he looks at the structural issues. Very much worth watching.

[@tuvelat7302]

I was looking for this comment! His perspective as a structural engineer from Florida gives his analysis great depth. He also manages to be engaging and accessible, too.

[@howieduwit2551]

I started watching his channel immediately after this tragedy. His videos are very well done and laid out well for the laymen.

[@tuvelat7302]

@@howieduwit2551 Same. I've been fascinated by his Millennium Tower series, too.

[@Gregorius421]

Must watch if one wants to understand what brings down a building.

[@joemamma137]

@@tuvelat7302yes! I keep waiting for a new video on that. His last one was so on point.

[@lgannawa]

I grew up in Florida, ending up in South Florida in the mid 1990’s. I remember driving to the beach and checking out the condo buildings with my mom. She pointed out all of these issues with the concrete used to build them. Rust coming through the concrete and painted walls, paint chipping everywhere, she said they looked like they were going to fall apart back then! To say I wasn’t surprised to hear one of these buildings collapsed is an understatement. I was just shocked it hadn’t already happened at some point. RIP to those who were lost and prayers to the families left behind stuck trying to grasp what happened and clean up what was left. My heart still breaks for them.

[@nursenic03]

I’m a concrete contractor and these videos keep me always ensuring that we follow specs. I could not live with myself if I knew my work killed others

[@yuGtahT]

As a Floridian, I vividly remember finding out about this having happened and how many people had died... It was really upsetting. The worst part is knowing that the people in the portion of the tower to fall last had to endure all of that fully awake.

[@ShionWinkler]

There is also the fact that over the years more and more weight was allowed to be added to the building. Many of the condos had heavy stone tiles added to their floors, thick granite counter tops to replace old wood ones, thick glass dividers, large glass fish tanks, etc...

[@ianmuir3640]

That shouldn’t cause the collapse of the building

[@rondadams]

Came looking for this comment. I don't think it was the cause of the collapse, but it certainly played a contributing factor that led to it. It seems there were many changes over the last 40 years that all helped to weaken it and cause the collapse. Add to those changes, a lack of proper engineering review, neglected maintenance, poor water drainage and relief and it all adds up to destroy this building and kill many innocent people. It's a shame that the people who were responsible for this disaster cannot be prosecuted for it. Hopefully the lessons will be learned and adhered to in order to prevent the same kind of disaster and loss of life.

[@StasherDragon]

I came looking for this comment, too. I've seen other videos on the topic of this collapse and one of the issues that stuck in my head was learning that people were adding the weight of new stone countertops to their kitchens and tiles to the balconies.

[@reachandler3655]

​@Ian Muir The building was not designed for the extra weight of marble/granite counter tops, wall and floor tiles in the kitchens and bathrooms of multiple apartments. Also the pool deck was not designed to carry the weight of multiple planters as well as the pool. That extra weight will certainly have contributed to the collapse.

[@1953childstar]

Very true !!!

[@Mitsurugi2424]

Imagine living in one of the neighboring condos and watching one collapse. I'd be looking for a house after that...

[@Alaryicjude]

The home security video from inside one of the units that was in one of the parts that collapsed is so terrifying. You can see the debris falling and one support starting to fail, leaning more and more. Then the room starts going sideways and then it goes black. The people in that unit weren't home at the time but it's still just absolutely horrifying to watch. Bless all those souls.

[@Heike--]

How can we find this video? You can't just say something like that and then run off and leave us hanging. That's just cruel.

[@maymarsh9117]

​@@Heike-- gimme a min I'll look, but some general advice, Wikipedia usually has most video sources linked.

[@Alaryicjude]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ql7Lh6qlr9mUgtE This seems to always be the only one I can find out it, I do think there's one that's just the video without this guy's analysis but it's elusive.

[@maymarsh9117]

Incase last comment gets removed for link it's twitter dot com foward slash _rosiesantana/status/1407970894924992512/video/1

[@Alaryicjude]

@@jessthesiren4353, that's literally what I just posted...

[@laurenstewart9582]

Great video as always, someone from my college died in this collapse before he could graduate. These kinds of collapses are family killers, taking out multiple relatives. So sad and so negligent.

[@zurirobinson2749]

I was 21 and noticed that there were several victims my age. One of them was a soccer player, if I remember correctly (I think he may have been the student you're referring to), and another two were a couple from Israel. I also remember that a whole family of 4, with 7 and 4 year old children, were killed. I had trouble sleeping the night of the collapse, and when I finally did, dreamt about 9/11 for some reason. I was so out of it at the time (on the wrong meds, and that specific day, recovering from a hangover) that it took a few days for me to realize what had happened, but I was utterly horrified once I did- the idea that a whole building could just *collapse* in seconds still keeps me awake at night sometimes. I'm so sorry for the loss to your college community. Take care. ❤

[@schlootle]

When you watch these terrible disasters on the internet it always feels so very distant but this one hit a lot closer. One of my dad's best friends had his son staying with a close friend for a quick weekend vacation who was around that age when the building collapsed, it took away the distance between the disaster and myself rather quickly when I found out. I didn't know him well, but he was still someone I knew in life and went fishing with.

[@sophierobinson2738]

It was heartbreaking to see a light come on in one of the units, knowing that someone had gotten up to see what was happening. Only to die.

[@windsofmarchjourneyperrytr2823]

Ripped power lines do that, too.

[@danielcorten3992]

Living in Florida and cleaning condos has taught me that the condos down here are cheaply built. Like 90% of the condos I’ve been in had rust and electrical issues.

[@ducky19991]

The circumstances are a little bit different than your usual content but when more information and investigations comes to light, I would love to see you cover the collapse that just happened in my hometown, Davenport, IA, USA. 😞

[@sydneyd8367]

I agree, and it would fit given the reports of the negligence of the building managers as it was reported to be a crumbling building before the collapse

[@SoulDelSol]

Iowa? I picture heavy metal music there for some reason. Bbrrd bbrd brrrd Yyeeeaaaahhh

[@SnakeBush]

It's going happen man. Apartment Landlords never ever repair anything and write off code violations

[@Sorrowablaze]

​ if you could come up with a graph showing which state spawned the most metal , Florida would blow away Iowa like 100,000 to 1.

[@neuralmute]

@@Sorrowablaze Why am I thinking of California and metal? Probably because of the 80's?

[@grapeshot]

Yap just had a partial collapse of an apartment building in Davenport, Iowa. Kind of reminds me of the collapse of the skywalk at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City back in 81.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That’s scary!

[@rainer250]

And what's more angering about the partial collapse of the Davenport, Iowa apartment is that the section that failed was set to collapse days before it actually happened as there were cracks in the brick outside wall.

[@billsmith5166]

Yes, Davenport appears to have been a real cluster with major problems evident for years. Luckily, it seems that the section that fell had been vacated because of the many problems. The repairs that were in progress were woefully inadequate despite being signed off by an engineer and adherence seemingly not monitored by the City.

[@rvanderjagt5944]

Sadly the section of the Davenport Apartments were not completely vacant and the search for victims/survivors has been a real soap opera, as has the outrage over why the building was allowed to get in such a state, and why it somehow passed city inspections. Multiple contractors and engineers had said the wall of the Davenport was dangerous and would fall. One contractor called 911 the day before because the state of the wall was so disturbing. But the building was never evacuated and as a result, a woman was pulled from the rubble with life-changing injuries, and 3 men are still missing. Oh yeah...the building is also across the street from city hall! (former Quad City resident.) This would actually make a great Plainly difficult episode

[@billsmith5166]

@@rvanderjagt5944 Wow. I had heard that all the fatalities were workers. It's hard to believe that a building with this history was allowed to be occupied. Do you know if it's true that the bid for the company actually doing the work was $3,000? I think the bid from the company that didn't get the job was around $50,000. The owner should be facing manslaughter charges.

[@SoonerKiller442]

From a FL resident, thank you SO much for choosing to cover this incident, I have been hoping to see you do this video since I discovered your channel a year or so ago. What a tragic day that was, smh.

[@brownell10]

Wonderful take on the collapse, John. Josh Porter on the channel Building Integrity has some killer breakdown videos on this. (not trying to divert your thunder PD - I was fascinated with this when it happened)

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the channel suggestion I’ll have to check him out! Thanks for the comment

[@stanparker9556]

@@PlainlyDifficult your content is great but he's very specifically known to me over the Surfside collapse. Did a pretty good job I thought at making a video about engineering work for interesting content. But not the same type of format at all.

[@rtqii]

@@PlainlyDifficult I follow him too. He has first class content.

[@BenKonosky]

​@@PlainlyDifficult he also goes into the laws that were passed because of the collapse.

[@Ou_phrontis]

I was going to recommend Building Integrity too. His stuff is great and he really lays it out well enough that a novice can understand. His video on the 2020 walkthrough video of a prospective buyer was really eye opening, especially when he breaks down the footage of the parking garage. That building truly was a screaming warning sign.

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

when I was looking to buy my own place I was lucky that one of our family friends was a lawyer specialising in conveyancing so he provided all sorts of advice. One of the things he taught was always, always, always ask for what is called a Strata report which details all of the goings on in the management of the property. When I showed interest in a property he would contact a building inspector he worked with to go out and do a full building inspection. Of course I had to pay for this service but it was well worth the expense (only a couple hundred dollars each time, but it could potentially save thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in the future.).

[@SoulDelSol]

You'd be nuts to buy without an inspection. When I bought 10 years ago it was standard practice. Over last couple years there were bidding wars so people would agree to buy without inspection. I think that's nuts

[@SoulDelSol]

What do you mean by strata tho. Obviously not for single family house. You mean for condo?

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

@@SoulDelSolah yes. Different terminology. In Australia we call it strata, it's similar to the sinking fund. Basically it's the same. All owners In a Complex pay into an administrative and capital works fund for maintenance

[@AvoidTheCadaver]

@@SoulDelSol You'd be surprised. I saw a lady at a home inspection once looking at what I knew to be a termite mud tunnel (because I'd been interested and had a building inspector go through it) and she just looked at it and said what's this?? Then ignored it and moved onto something else. I can't confirm but I thi k her husband was interest in buying the place and may have negotiated with the owner later. But the lack of concern was itself concerning. *IT'S BLOODY TERMITES*

[@SoulDelSol]

@@AvoidTheCadaver that's not a home inspection then if a potential buyer is looking at the home. A home inspection is when you hire a professional to go through every part of home and furnish a thorough report. They're usually about 395$ or so around where I live

[@dianamerchant1026]

God as a child we stayed in many different condominiums built in Florida. These were all built in the 80s and so there was so little regulation. I’m so scared this is going to happen over and over again. Ty for covering this as always man. First time I’ve stayed in one of the cities you’ve discussed!❤

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

There was a different partial building collapse just a few days ago in Iowa. One of many. Your fears are founded in reality. Killing people is cheap for the rich.

[@TheGreatDanish]

Oh it is. Not only were regulations shit back then, they're getting more lax now. Give it a few years and the extreme weather coming Florida's way is gonna leave that place looking like Haiti on a good day.

[@coolnormalandwelladjusted]

@@TheGreatDanish Florida has some of the strictest building codes due to the hurricanes. Damage is going to be caused by flooding and flying debris. Yes there are people who live in trailer homes here, those people are most affected. Most houses here are made of concrete, not wood. At least in south Florida they are. Whenever there has been a hurricane I drive around the day after. All the damage is from trees falling and flooding. Of course this doesn’t apply to large buildings, as those are mostly affected by things like earthquakes and we don’t have those here. So shoddily built apartments and condos go “unnoticed”till they collapse. And by unnoticed I mean ignored.

[@seanm3226]

@@TheGreatDanish “...extreme weather”? Ooh, spooky.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

Probably most buildings are fairly safe. But it does make me concerned how easily we can miss the warning signs. When is a crack just a crack, and when are minor defects a cause for concern? I think that explains some of my interest in such engineering videos.

[@philrabe910]

We grew up in FL during this boom from '63 to '75. I made a 'documentary' on "the rape of a county" in 7th grade showing all the rampant construction and coastal degradation. Little sister owns a condo unit up the beach from Surfside in Daytona. Same age, similar design with a raised pool deck over the car park. In 2012 they had to perform the same water damage mitigation including a replacement pool. The car park was closed for 2 yrs, several ground and first floor owners sold out. It cost around $6m but the board had set aside a decent reserve so the emergency assessment was only about $30K per unit. They got their continuing occupancy certificate. (while they were at it, they upgraded all the glass to the latest hurricane code)

[@ShinbiBelldandy]

This video hits too close to home. I live in Florida now & I stayed at the Solara, which is right next door to this building. When the news broke, mom & I were so shocked. I had been trying to go back for the longest, but we haven't had time. Now I'm scared to even go back to Surfside, especially since parking is underneath a lot of the buildings due to lack of space.

[@Praisethesunson]

If it's any consolation. Your state government reduced the regulatory and enforcement mechanisms to prevent events like this.

[@ShinbiBelldandy]

@@Praisethesunson Florida is a shit hole & I can't wait to leave. We had to due to my mom's job, but I don't want to live here my whole life. More buildings are like this & it's putting people like my mom in a bad spot because rent is astronomically expensive & people in binds.

[@meligoth]

I work in concrete and live on the island of Galveston. I won't name the hotel, but the company I work for made an assessment of the outside patios of their units and discovered the rebar has rusted to literally dust on some of their buildings. We did not do any work there after that, and since we're licensed contractors the repairs and renovations goes beyond just the patios to get everything up to snuff.

[@Emigdiosback]

I live in a condo in Hialeah, further out west and when the state inspector arrived post Surfside collapse to inspect the building, he told me that Surfside cut costs by mixing in concrete with Beach sand. (Beach sand contains salt. The building had steel rebar. You can do the math.)

[@musicobsessive123]

oh my fucking god. that's horrifying

[@zurirobinson2749]

Mixing concrete with BEACH SAND?!? What the entire fuck were they thinking?

[@tiahnarodriguez3809]

@@zurirobinson2749 Right? It almost sounds unbelievable till you realize there is no length that a greedy person won’t go to cut costs.

[@Scraggledust]

Your content is well done and informative. Since I’ve had a stroke, I can’t read for long. Makes things tough. Your videos, help me to better understand what leads up to and causes these events. So important we stay vigilant and aware! Ty much!

[@musicobsessive123]

if you like this type of content, fascinating horror and brick immortar are other good channels!

[@SoulDelSol]

Sorry to hear about your brain injury. I hope you heal as much as possible and then even more

[@healingv1sion]

I use AIReader for android. It works with multiple text formats and has a text to speech option. Get well soon!

[@staceyn2541]

The worst part of this, beyond the dead, was that in the standing part of the tower, no one was allowed in, leaving all of their abandoned pets to die. Horrific all around.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

"No one allowed" also included investigators apparently, because neither the fire control panel nor the security system DVR were recovered from the lobby despite both having vital forensic information. They must have thought the thing was going to fall down in a strong wind or something, because in other disasters, they've let people return at their own peril, and they haven't blown up the building while recovery efforts were underway.

[@SamanthaCoolBeans]

Omg really? Is this true? I would risk my life to save my pets not a shadow of a doubt

[@staceyn2541]

@@SamanthaCoolBeans it was in one news show I saw, I don't think they wanted it widely known. Residents tried to stop the demolition and they were told it was unsafe. I cannot imagine that horror. I have told my kids that if it comes down to it, I save the dog first. I should mention my kids are over 18.

[@billj5645]

Somewhere in one of the videos it said that they went through the building looking for people and animals before it was imploded.

[@kriscarmelo]

My friend luckily sold his condo years before this. I remember I could poke a key against the wet cement columns in the underground parking lot. It came apart like wet sand. He was smart enough to sell. For those who own condos in buildings that have this issue won’t be able to sell and get out. They’re screwed.

[@robertmoffett3486]

I have a visceral reaction whenever a condo board is mentioned. As a locksmith and contractor, I found some to be dominated by control freaks with little knowledge or sense. The type that consults a licensed professional, and proceeds to tell him his business.

[@jayfielding1333]

The western half of the building was safe not miraculously but because there was a sheer wall between the two halves. That wall gave the western half structural integrity.

[@joshinnc1520]

I have been watching building engineers talk about this disaster since the weeks after it happened and have been patiently waiting for NIST to complete and publish their findings. Hopefully, this collapse will help to keep other buildings like it from crumbling until they eventually collapse as well. Prayers for the people who lost their lives and for the ones that lost their loved ones.

[@solandri69]

Unfortunately in many of these cases, the cost to fix it can exceed the value of the building. At which point there is very little incentive to fix it (correctly). Read up on the problems with the Millennium Tower in San Francisco.

[@notablynova4247]

Didn't do anything to help those killed in Sundays collapse in Davenport Iowa

[@joshinnc1520]

@Notably Nova there's no excuse for this. People ignore the signs and people die for it.

[@mommachupacabra]

If you want to go more in depth, Jeff Ostroff, and Building Integrity, both YT channels, went down all the rabbit holes. Also an excellent expose through the... Miami Herald, I think it was. Good job on getting so much of it in, in under 30 minutes, John.

[@jooleebilly]

My mom grew up in Florida, and her first response to the disaster was, "Greed and corruption. That's what collapsed that building." Turns out stingy condo owners played a part, as well. Good Job As Usual, John!!

[@markpclark1]

Regarding the “stingy condo”owners, the video doesn’t tell us how much the two increases in condo dues were. I’ve seen cases where association dues are 50% of the mortgage payment. I have a feeling that those two rent increases were very large and beyond the budget of many residents. Speaking of the condo management…I’ve seen reports that most blame lies at the feet of the condo board. I’ve seen people describe this condo board as petty and drama-fueled. From the time that my wife joined our condo board, they’ve been very apolitical and cooperative. We’re lucky in that, but this video needs at least a little more info about the condo board decisions.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

_Stingy?_ I thought those condos were not cheap? How many of them were feeling almost up to their eyeballs in debt? Do you think that they all just paid cash? And getting hit with costly assessments for repairs, that were not in their budget? Besides poor design and maintenance, I heard in another video, concern for excessive weight of upgrades over the decades, perhaps beyond what the building was designed for. Numerous condos having heavy tile and stone countertops. When it was built, those heavy upgrades were not the trend back then. Maybe all that weight would be better placed in a more solidly-built mansion, or on the bottom floor slab. But people just have to have the illusion of luxury, no matter that all that weight may not have been so much factored into the original construction? Compared to such examples, my kitchen is ancient. Looks like outdated stuff from the 1970s. Plastic laminate countertops. Linoleum floor. A stove that might have been there when the house was built. I am not about to put in heavy stone countertops. Too costly for one reason, another, why exactly do I need that costly remodel? When most everything still works? If I could afford to put in all that heavy stuff, why not spend some money and have somebody beef up the structure in the basement, or at least have a look at it? Or maybe just build a new house and make sure that it is up to proper standards. When I got my car oil change, they tell me that a tire that I thought had plenty of tread left, was old and recommended it should be replaced soon. Another tire had minimal tread, but I thought I could at least let it go until the next time. It occurred to me that maybe I could afford 2 new tires and that they were getting old. So I told them to move the front tires to the rear, and put the 2 new tires onto the front. Front-wheel drive seems to wear the front tires much faster than the rear. Tires are a safety feature and I don't want any tires failing when I am on a trip. Of course the entire car is old, but I can't afford everything at once. It still runs well.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

Less than a week before the disaster, there was photo evidence of the planter area of the pool deck sinking. That is almost certainly the cause of the disaster - the planter fell through, took out a support column, and the added stress caused the badly supported slab to fail, taking out the rest of the support columns around it. What I find remarkable is how relatively slowly it happened. Multiple people experienced something weird (stuck elevator, patio doors that wouldn't close, cracks that just appeared), and went to the lobby to complain about it, and then it took several minutes before the disaster happened. The last person to make it out heard the patio collapse, saw big cracks form in front of them, and because they were new to the building, only knew of one stairwell - the one stairwell that survived. They made it down like two floors and then they heard the building collapse around them. If you watch the body camera footage, apparently at least one person living in the penthouse woke up mid descent, and when they were at the top of the rubble, climbed to the street level to seek help. I would need a change of pants if that were me.

[@kittenmatchvids6440]

There was only one person living in the penthouse at the time and she unfortunately died. The people who were found near the top had been in the upper floors, but in the condos where half was collapsed and half was still standing.

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

@@kittenmatchvids6440 I’m talking about the guy who said he was a cop to the first responders. He said he was in the penthouse.

[@NicolasChiribelo]

I remember being very into this disaster, checking the Wikipedia article frequently and also reading other media articles. It even kind of revived my childhood interest in 9/11 a bit, and also brought me frequent dreams of buildings collapsing, or laying in positions that would be impossible due to the laws of physics. Good video. I just subbed a few days ago and was wondering when you would cover this.

[@BlackMoonHowls]

First mistake, Wikipedia. Second, you're new here. Welcome to the community that is Plainly Difficult.

[@user-el4su7tl6f]

I remember a first responder saying it looked like Ground Zero after 9/11

[@TrickiVicBB71]

Thank you for finally covering this. I live in Western Canada but it was all over the news. Rest in peace to all those that died. I watch you and Brick Immortar. Anyone that ignores safety in the name of profit is not to be associated with

[@neuralmute]

Fellow Canadian here. Remember the days when people from Canada actually *wanted* to go to Florida voluntarily? It seems like things have turned backwards since I was a kid. My closest friend moved from Florida to Ontario, and is now working on sponsoring her brother and his wife to get them out of that place. Oh how times have changed!

[@vustvaleo8068]

also one of the victims is a boy who survived while trapped in the rubble along with his mother and keeps holding his mother's hand, when the rescuers finally pulled him out of the rubble turns out his mother was already long dead.

[@TwirlGirl2197]

The saddest part is that of the people and pets in the collapsed section of the building, only 3 people and a cat survived.

[@joyg7575]

It's so hard to believe it's been 2 years since the collapse

[@robertducanis4448]

As others have mentioned, Josh Porter's analysis on the Building Integrity channel is top notch. What is interesting is that he states that most condominium associations in FL are woefully underfunded to take on major repairs and then very high dollar special assessments have to be levied on the condo owners. Many of those condo owners cannot afford such assessments. Can you imagine being handed a $50K-$200K repair bill? Condo sales have been slowing down in Florida. Some of it is obviously attributed to the rise in mortgage interest rates, but the other major concern is that older condo buildings now have to undergo an intensive engineering inspection. Those inspections will most likely turn up major construction issues that will need to be addressed. It will be an unknown cost for prospective buyers. The Champlain Towers South condo board spent weeks deciding what color scheme the new paint job would be. I can't imagine how divisive it would have been to try to get the $15 million loan approved and then bill the current condo owners. It would have taken months to push it thru They were attempting the fixes necessary, but too little and too late. Condo boards are granted very strong powers and they can actually evict people that cannot pay special assessments. Very sad. I grew up in S. Fla. and had close friends that lived in Surfside, but not in a condo.

[@ZGryphon]

Condominiums: all the worst parts of owning your own home, plus all the worst parts of living in an apartment building.

[@darthkarl99]

@@ZGryphon It's really an argument for mandatory house insurance against major engineering works for all houses and condo units.

[@ZGryphon]

@@darthkarl99 Why should the homeowner be faced with such a mandate (and, thereby, yet another barricade in the path to home ownership) rather than the onus being placed on the constructors to build the damn things properly?

[@darthkarl99]

@@ZGryphon Because even a perfectly built building needs maintenance eventually. There's no such thing as a zero maintenance building. But you also often can't predict exactly when it will need it as it's affected by so many factors, and some of them like big storms are completely unpredictable.

[@ZGryphon]

@@darthkarl99 "Big storms" aren't a maintenance issue, they're an emergency--the kind of thing insurance is for. My objection is to the idea of carrying insurance _for maintenance issues._ If a structure's baseline maintenance requirements are so catastrophic that the residents need insurance to cope with them, it either wasn't built right or it's in a place where a residence has no business being.

[@ButyoucancallmeKat]

As someone who lives in Miami the whole story was so scary to watch unfold. I cannot believe how much time has past and how much it feels like nothing has been done about it. One thing that will always haunt me is that everyone knows about all the people and lives lost but not many know about the pets. In the standing building they evacuated people without their pets and then demolished it with them all still inside. People petitioned and pleaded for them to rescue them but their solution was that they supposedly put food out on some balconies and said they didn’t see any pet coming out to eat so obviously they had already starved to death. The whole situation was absolutely horrible but I cannot imagine living through that AND having to watch someone blow up the rest of my life too. I really wish I could say that things are better two years later but not many mention it anymore and a lot of people hear still believe the lies that it was just “ocean air” that took the old building down.

[@samuelglover7685]

My understanding is that Florida officials have more important things to worry about, such as rooting out the WOKE MENACE, monitoring public bathrooms, and so forth. And judging by the election returns the freedom-loving people of Florida love it! That whole backwards peninsula can't wash away into the sea fast enough.

[@BrandtAbsolu]

As a board member of a nearby building, I can assure you that many things have been done about it. Associations can no longer waive reserves, reserves have to be fully funded, recertification requirements have been tightened, and we have structural integrity assessments that we have to complete. Those are just a few of the changes. Of course all of this means that monthly dues are skyrocketing across the region. On top of that, insurance premiums are out of control. Condo living has become a lot more expensive as a result of this disaster.

[@ButyoucancallmeKat]

@@BrandtAbsolu Correct me if I’m wrong but it almost sounds like you are complaining about that. Those regulations are required because we now have pretty darn good example that those things that buildings should be doing anyway were being pushed aside. Now costs are getting higher even those the standard is just now being enforced? You couldn’t possibly be suggesting that the money that should rightfully been saved up for building maintenance and safety was somehow spent elsewhere! I am very glad that as a board member you can make sure that those costs are not shoved onto your residents due to the boards poor planning and that this example of lost of life in the most horrific fashion has only made you and your fellow members reassure yourselves that the cost of your continual work to assure building safety is a constant and not somehow hastily added after the fact.

[@1953childstar]

That was very upsetting to me as well. Poor helpless pets !!!

[@BrandtAbsolu]

@@ButyoucancallmeKat My only complaints are that all the increased costs happened all at the same time. But no I'm not complaining about the laws themselves, as I believe they were long overdue. I haven't been on the board that long but unfortunately my building has long been waiving reserves and deferring maintenance as I'm sure many older buildings have. When I joined the board with a new manager (pre-collapse), we were slowly working our way back to a healthy financial situation and staying on top of the maintenance as much as possible, and gearing up for our upcoming recertification. So we weren't affected too badly by the new laws, but the insurance is what got us, and that is what has increased the monthly fees the most by far, and it just keeps getting worse every year.

[@kquinnvandevelde1384]

When this happened I definitely thought "in two or three years, I bet I'll be watching a plainly difficult video about the negligence involved"

[@tylern6420]

They probably would have excluded the steel if they just couldnt pay like 2 more dollars

[@RichieRouge206]

I remember watching this unfold on the news as there has been so much media coverage so it still feels fresh. Really pleased to see your coverage on it now!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@theshenpartei]

The video from one apartments was probably the most terrifying video I seen in a while since you can hear the building creak and eventually collapse

[@rtqii]

Building Integrity did some of the best videos on this topic, the channel host is a professional structural engineer. There is a second condo building not far from Surfside that is currently being braced to prevent it from collapsing just like this one.

[@tz8785]

jeffostroff did a whole series of videos as various informations surfaced over time (and on a number of other building collapses).

[@stevewhite3424]

Another vote for BUILDING INTEGRITY.!

[@rtqii]

@@stevewhite3424 I really like Josh Porter there, he's extremely professional and I have learned a lot from him.

[@Knirin]

Apparently Surfside North was also better maintained than Surfside South.

[@bevinboulder5039]

Thank you for covering this disaster. It was so shocking when it happened.

[@megladon6]

It is truly stunning how you can watch in the collapse the portions that were properly reinforced with adequate columns not only did not fail but continued to stand despite the loss of significant parts of the building.

[@Praisethesunson]

IBC standards work. When they are enforced.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

The building was designed segmented like that. The part where the collapsed portion sheared away was a designated shearing point. Think of it like a perforated tear line on a piece of paper; either side was reinforced, but the thin section between was intentionally made weaker than the rest. If/when a major failure happens, the failure stops there.

[@javiera.riverop.8471]

​@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826Is not that terrible design? Like, living in that part of the building is basically reducing your chances of living

[@rainer250]

When you poorly design a building, do poor maintenance and ignore the warning signs of structural compromise, a collapse is inevitable.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I agree

[@sookieb_88]

I live in a beachfront townhouse in Sydney, and all the stuff about the condo board and sudden extra bills felt eerily familiar… we have a sinking fund (money put aside for large repairs and projects), and a strata committee, our version of condo or tenant boards in the US. Which is basically a group of various older owners in the executive committee and then everyone argues over the most ridiculously minute things at our committee meetings. We’re townhouses, there’s only 17 in the complex, so it’s small, but we have constant cleaning and maintenance costs built into our annual budgets for all the crap that goes with living across the street from a beach. About 10 years ago, we had a whole new roof installed, huge ordeal, the sinking fund had about $170,000 in it that covered the cost without each of the 17 owners having to shell out money out of pocket suddenly. We also have the system of owners of larger townhouses paying more than smaller ones, it’s all calculated by the strata management, and of course, lucky me, mine has the largest square footage, mostly due to having a very large courtyard. Roofing is underway, ridiculous steel sheets had to be rolled to the curvature of the architect designed roofs, then treated and coated a million times, put on MASSIVE trucks to bring these huge curved sheets down from Queensland to Sydney… the whole thing obviously went on for what seemed like eternity. Then one day I get this letter with an invoice payable in THREE WEEKS for additional unforeseen costs in this roofing project the sinking fund couldn’t cover for $17,000 BUCKS. I was at uni at the time, almost all other owners are rich retirees, but I was just like, how the f*** am I supposed to magically pull this out of thin air in three bloody weeks!?! And oh yeah, if I didn’t pay on time there was an immediate high interest rate compounding DAILY. Basically had to empty my savings. Early-twenties-Sophie was NOT pleased, especially since I wasn’t included in any conversations or consultations because being 40 years younger than all other owners, they don’t consider me an adult even though… I pay the most out of everyone on time, every time. I’m 35 now. I’m still bitter about it if you can’t tell 😂 and yes, in my mid 30’s I am still treated like a child who has no input on anything.

[@ae2948]

Condo and co-op buildings are tough. There are usually part time residents who resist any hike in fees and who put off maintenance issues - because its not a big deal to them. And there's usually a block of older residents who resist any increases because they're on a fixed income (aren't we all?) or because they don't intend to be living there in 5-10 years and want to delay the costs so future residents will have to pay instead. Thats when they start pushing for crazy high "flip taxes." ( flip taxes - when an apartment is sold, large fee gets paid to the building's association - tens of thousands of dollars sometimes - and the board uses this money that they get from every sale - intead of increasing the monthly fees on current residents.) And then you've got the sneaky bastards who somehow manage to raid the reserve funds for pet projects or personal gain.

[@sheldoniusRex]

Multi family housing is a mistake.

[@sgriffiths1448]

I do find it hard to have sympathy for someone in their early 20s getting a repair bill for a beachside Sydney townhouse they own (outright or mortgaged)... On the other issue, if you dont want them treating you like a child and want your input heard and valued, dont let them walk over you. It wont stop on its own with time.. It doesn't have to turn into a fight just speak up confidently and dont let them dismiss you.

[@sookieb_88]

@@sgriffiths1448 oh I absolutely know how lucky I am to have been able to buy so young, it was only possible because my mum passed away when I was 12 then I invested her life insurance once I was working. I know that being able to buy in Sydney at all is an increasingly unattainable goal and in the last 15 years or so real estate prices have only skyrocketed. So yeah, I know I was very fortunate having a head start on buying a home, still would have preferred having a mum and being able to live in a family home growing up though. In terms of the other owners, I absolutely do stick up for myself, but it’s hard to overstate how aggressive and obsessive most of them were and a lot still are… it’s hard to have a say at all when decisions are made by the Executive Committee and I’m only told AFTER the fact, the committee and most other owners are partially or fully retired and they have meetings during work hours, and because they’re bored and have time on their hands ANY little thing becomes this obsessive intense argument… ironically they act more like children arguing about a specific choice of planter in the communal area whilst I’m too busy working to attend their meeting. It’s just typical boomer vs millennial idiocy to sum it up.

[@nicholasvinen]

My experience owning Strata title property was the same. Nobody wanted to fix anything properly and nobody wanted to pay for needed maintenance. I sold it and will only buy Torrens title property now where I control the maintenance.

[@squelchtone]

My parents live a few miles North of that building collapse location and right now every condo building around them is under repair for cracks and other structural issues. When you go to the beach all you hear is the sound of Hilti hammer drills chipping away at the cracks along the exterior walls. Their 7 story building needed a new roof membrane so everyone in the condo building (56 units) just received a +/-$7000 bill (depending on their apartment size) to collectively cover the cost of the new roof. They had 3 months to pay their portion, and as retirees on a fixed income, it was tough to get that kind of cash.

[@allentac6222]

We lived in a high rise condo in Ohio when this happened. Our building was built in 1965, but was very well maintained. After the collapse, we had a major structural study completed which, thankfully found no issues.

[@tamoyed]

The visuals you provide are so helpful for fully conceptualizing what's happening especially with repairs and stuff. Thank you for covering it thoroughly, I hope to hear about rhe final report when it comes out.

[@Killerean]

Concrete can only keep rebar safe for so long before it fails. It has to do with PH and water leakage. The more water leaks in to the reinforced concrete the less basic the concrete gets. At a certain point the rebar just rusts to hell and tears the concrete apart. The thing that used to make concrete strong, now destroys it. If you just let a whole building to leak, well, that's it. At a certain point the damage becomes unfixable and the structure must be torn down. Alternatively, it will tear itself down.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

Why can't we invent something better and cheaper than concrete? Concrete needs rebar, because concrete is low in tensile strength, and takes compression far better.

[@Killerean]

@@yosefmacgruber1920 You could potentially just use stone... Stone makes up most of our planet and it stacks very nicely. But naturally it's a bit harder to use. In general, concrete is right about the easiest material to work with. Additionally, on the end of its lifetime it's just lime based rock so it's a breeze to recycle it. Using a different material means a lot of new learning, unexpected failures, ecological load and over all a whole of not enjoyment at all.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

@@Killerean Concrete is pretty much artificial stone. But concrete can be shaped as needed, stone is not very structural unless you use a lot of it and engineer it properly. Cinder-block can be stacked into some fairly-stable walls. Actually, we should probably use whatever it is that they use to build _Star Trek_ spaceships, just as soon as we figure out what that is. That material doesn't much corrode, weather away, not get water damage, nor easily buckle underneath a lot of weight. Just so long as you do not have a bunch of Klingons or Romulans or Borg firing exotic futuristic weapons at it. And I notice that the roofs on my video game island, never leak, and never get old. Now how can I move to there?

[@anon-means-anon]

Great documentary. Building integrity did a deep dive engineering series on this collapse that is excellent as well.

[@bishoukun]

My parents live in Miami, and the apartment I used to share with my dad there looked so similar to Surfside that I almost had a panic attack when I first saw pictures and videos on the news. Totally sending this to him. That this was also so close to the bridge collapse at FIU, also in Miami, whoooo-wee, boyo, that's some nightmare fuel right there.

[@TheEDFLegacy]

This is a treat. I'm glad you're covering this! Makes sense that you're building up to this. It makes sense why you held off until now.

[@Mezza_Luca]

I'm not usually phased by tragic footage but this one shook me when I first saw it. Putting myself in the shoes of someone who was in there, especially that second part to fall. Terrifying.

[@stevie-ray2020]

One civil-engineer on his YT channel described how poorly the columns in the carpark were constructed, being too small an area in cross-section, with no pads at the top of them to spread the load of the slab above, causing the columns to simply 'punch' through!

[@jdkunzjeff]

We used to live in a condo and it's sad how bad they are about fixing things. Granted we weren't in a high rise but the professional management company allocated like 1000 a month for repairs when there was 75 units. Management companies/HOA are a scam here.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

The one and only great thing to come out of this collapse is that we get to see the NIST's new investigative practices. The rubble wasn't just carted off to the dumps. It's been organized, preserved, and extensively photographed. Last I checked, the NIST made several enormous overhead photos of the organized rubble (along with reference materials) available to the public. You can pan around, zoom in, pick different parts, and see what columns in a given part of the building look like. They've even used QR-esque electronic markers on the various chunks to help with keeping things organized. All the rubble was laid out in three massive hangars. It's some pretty incredible work. Technology has changed the face of forensic structural analysis.

[@erisi236]

it truly is amazing how many of these types of videos always seem to have the common issue of developers adding things after the plans are made and removing structure to make those additions fit

[@jrmckim]

Ive always been terrified of tall buildings since I was young. It could be from watching the wtc collapse on 9/11. I had dreams (more like nightmares) where I was in a tall building/ skyscraper and it would move side to side then fall. Back in 2013 or 2014 my family and I went to Florida for vacation. We stayed at one of those large buildings... on the ground floor because of my phobia. I cant remember the actual name but a few months or a year later half of it fell into a sinkhole.

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

Probably most tall buildings are quite safe. I am more concerned about heights. One wrong step and that landing could be really rough. So I am fine, actually I prefer a window seat in an airplane. I love to see the scenery, or if by the wing, how the wing works. As long as the side of the airplane is not missing such that I might step off the edge. I sure do not like sloped rooftops. I can climb a ladder, but I really don't like to do much anything on a ladder or be reaching for something up there.

[@CoasterMan13Official]

There's a building in a resort complex in Panama City Beach (its name is Edgewater) that was built very similarly to the Champlain Towers South building. Could've been built by the same people.

[@tisvana18]

By the Sea in Galveston has a lot of similar problems too. Plus its entire HVAC system was added without getting a permit from the city (it still has no permit for all of the AC units) and things are constantly breaking down inside of units-including walls themselves. They wanted a maintenance man who could do HVAC, drywall, and electricity but weren’t willing to pay above $20/hr. I am ***really*** glad my parents moved. I fully expect to see it gone if we ever get hit by another Ike.

[@turd__ferguson]

i was on vacation in surfside at the time when this happened, my airbnb was 7 blocks away and i slept through the whole thing somehow.

[@gatsbye53]

You should do a video on the recent apartment collapse in Davenport, Iowa.

[@kumaahito3927]

Not from the US, but yes, house management by the residents is awful here too. Based on the apartment owned, you get a weighed vote in the house board(?), and basically anything financial has to be approved by a certain majority of residents. (Depends on type, some decisions need only simple majority, some need consensus.) Many apartment houses are in terrible shape, and most residents are extremely stingy in regards to maintenance. Wouldn't be surprised if there would be multiple collapses in a few years due to gross negligence by the residents (or more specifically the owners, you don't get a vote if you're just renting).

[@morganstrom8584]

Since this happened it's become my regular stress nightmare to be trapped in a falling highrise

[@mariosgameplay8373]

John you are the only reason I get out of bed on Saturdays!

[@cleareyedliar]

i've been waiting for your report on this disaster, knowing nothing else would come close to the technical detail and respect you would give it. thank you for this video.

[@cadillacdeville5828]

I work at a architecture firm, I'm definitely going to send this to someone in particular. Edit: I just sent this to my structural engineer and a architect to see what they thought.

[@chocolatechip12]

In my opinion, this is an example of a Swiss cheese failure where every slice of cheese was 90% holes.

[@origamikamiful]

As soon as this happened I was hoping you would cover it. Thank you so much for shedding light on this event.

[@watchesfromedges]

I saw what must have been the first public video (BBC) of the collapse when all that was said was that a building had fallen. There were lights on in the building moments before it fell, but nothing else seemed to happen other than a cloud of dust. I watched the video in horror and disbelief, and spent the next hours waiting for more information to be presented about something that was obviously an immensely traumatic event. Learning about the reality of construction in Florida since then makes me feel very sad for the residents not only of the Towers but of the rest of the seafront communities.

[@mksemposki]

Love your videos. They go through the history if there is any and then through facts. Thanks for the great job on this video and all of your videos! 😊

[@BurntEdgez]

Reminds me of some stuff in the 70s... where issues occurred with projects setting up affordable housing that was then neglected... and failures were blamed on tenants who couldn't afford it.

[@Heike--]

The projects failed socially because of the people who lived there, not the physical buildings. Turns out if you take fatherless wildlings out of houses and put them in highrises, they don't lose any of their problems.

[@BurntEdgez]

@Heike-- I disagree with this sentiment... fatherless creatures, and motherless features are wash over bad parenting drug abuse blame devices used in adversarial opposition for the purpose of... shame guilt blame games... at the end of the day we can see on paper... in the economy... that the people needing affordable shelters could barely afford the shelter rent requirements... and ... we can see the maintenance costs were not saved and used to maintain the buildings... they were concentrated pocketed and tied up with over seas investments... the absolute absurdity of it all baffles me... they obviously can't afford to maintain or fix anything on their own, as seen by the requirements to even qualify for the living arrangements... and it's not like these people were given formal education or any certifications related to building codes or house maintenance... or construction... Those people were human beings brought to a demonstration of desperation ... then their demonstration of survival in desperate measures was documented and sold off to society as high quality propaganda reinforcing false notions about a specifically arranged carefully selected group of people... and false notions of how affordable housing projects can hurt communal equity... The projects were weaponized with neglect and then used as a means of deception to try and hold an imaginary status quo conflict over people who need strength support and wisdom, but can not access the available resources due to concentrated gate keeping... It doesn't even matter what you know in life, most of the times it's about who you know... though we are starting to finally see some of that status woe bs exposed. Better examples will exhibit better results... follow the variables...

[@CynnamonSpyder]

@@Heike-- ah yes, all those widowed old people on fixed income.

[@codysoultz9124]

“Anything neglected will eventually fail” is exactly why the apartment building in Davenport Iowa partially collapsed one week ago.

[@michaelmarshall6726]

Thank you for your hard work. I love the level detail of the accident/incident.

[@averytheaxolotl5689]

Living nearby, i was absolutely shocked when this happened. The fact that something so devastating happened so close to home with no warning was terrifying. At the same time, i knew this was a very big problem that still isnt being properly addressed here in Florida. Corners are always being cut to make a profit and because of how fast the states population is growing, this is only the first of many to come

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

So yet another way that Democrats have found to cause problems. By driving people out of their badly-ruined states, increasing the populations of better-run states. Can't seem to build enough good housing fast enough? While more and more housing in Democrat dominated states goes vacant.

[@whoever6458]

Great documentary of this tragedy! Thanks! Condolences to all those who lost loved ones and otherwise suffered due to this collapse.

[@Alan_Watkin]

KZbinr jeffostroff did a really good job on this one, i was hooked on his updates back when this had just happened, but john here still managed to tell me bits i don't think i knew, many thanks

[@julia190]

Remembering this tragedy last year. Condolences to families who lost loved ones.

[@katiekane5247]

I worked as a property manager in the late 80s for a huge, upscale subdivision in a N. Georgia suburb. Boards are generally compromised of people looking for a place to be important. Insufferable lot, I decided the salary wasn't commensurate with the abuse. I did put a lien on an NBA players home for delinquent assessment though 😊

[@uricapital]

The condo laws in Florida have changed drastically. Now, Recertification/Milestone, Structural Integrity Reserve Study and other essential engineering requirements are the law - especially in Miami-Dade. Sad that it had to reach this point for things to change. 😢

[@TheZombieateu]

This collapse was an absolute tragedy that I'm still a bit shaken by as a Florida resident. I followed the news of the collapse and the search and rescue quite closely as it happened. It still blows my mind that something so horrible, almost unthinkable, has happened here. My heart is still broken for all the people that were killed in its collapse, as well as the survivors who have to live with those horrifying memories.

[@LeCharles07]

After this happened i started watching a lot of engineering videos and now get nervous when i see spalling concrete in parking garages.

[@cadillacdeville5828]

Good morning Plainly Difficult 😊

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Good morning

[@tasticfan4286]

I had a job site at the nearest Cell Tower to the north the week this happened. I had never seen so many dump trucks in one area. The amount of chaos during Miami traffic was multiplied by this event by at least 5.

[@jamesmchenry4708]

...so there was another collapse of a residential high-rise in Iowa just this week. The timing of this video is uncanny.

[@oliviacarter1517]

Finally someone’s doing a video on this!! Can’t wait to watch, much love from Texas :)

[@JackRussell021]

I have seen other commenters mention evidence of "punch-through", where the joints between the columns and the pool deck slab may have failed, resulting in the pool deck slab falling. This in turn may have undermined adjacent columns which in turn caused the rest of the building to fall.