By New York Post. The developers of the Miami condo tower that collapsed were once accused of paying off local officials to get permits for the site — which needed $15 million in repairs just to bring it to code, a new report says.
Building rivals claimed that the partners behind Surfside Champlain Towers South were receiving preferential treatment when it came to getting through the permit system as the site was being built in 1981, the Washington Post said.
Surfside’s developers had contributed to the campaigns of at least two town-council members, then demanded that the donations be returned when the allegations surfaced, according to the outlet.
Meanwhile, the 12-story tower had been on the verge of undergoing $15 million in renovations to pass a required 40-year certification when it collapsed, killing at least nine people and leaving more than 150 unaccounted for Thursday, the report added. (Read more from “Developers of Doomed Tower Were Once Accused of Paying off Officials” HERE)
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Florida Tower Survivor Describes Anguished Cries of Trapped Neighbors
By New York Post. A resident of the collapsed condo tower recalled to The Post on Sunday how he could hear his terrified neighbors screaming, “Help me! Get me out!” as the structure crumbled around them.
Steve Rosenthal, 72, said he first heard the “largest thunderclap” of his life around 1:30 in the morning Thursday.
“Five seconds later, the bed and the room start shaking. I figure OK, I am dreaming,” said Rosenthal, who works in advertising and entertainment, outside a Marriott hotel in Miami Beach set up for the tower’s evacuees.
Then dust started pouring down from his ceiling, so Rosenthal ran into the hallway. There he saw the hall ceiling caved in and heard the cries from his neighbors.
“I hear people yelling, ‘Help me! Help me! Get me out!’” Rosenthal recalled. (Read more from “Florida Tower Survivor Describes Anguished Cries of Trapped Neighbors” HERE)
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Report: Florida Residents Were Told Condo Was Safe Despite MAJOR Issues
By NPR. Just one month after an engineering report warned of “major structural damage” that required immediate repair, a Surfside, Fla. official assured residents of Chaplain Towers South that their building was sound.
NPR has obtained minutes of a Nov. 2018 meeting that shows a Surfside town inspector met with residents of the building, and assured them the building was “in very good shape.” NPR learned of the meeting from a resident who was in attendance and who in an interview with Weekend Edition recalled being told that the building was not in danger.
The inspector’s comments directly conflicted with an engineering report from five weeks earlier, which warned that failed waterproofing in a concrete structural slab needed to be replaced “in the near future.” (Read more from “Report: Florida Residents Were Told Condo Was Safe Despite MAJOR Issues” HERE)
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