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‘Like an Earthquake’: A family recounts a difficult escape from a Florida apartment collapse

 


Emergency workers perform search and rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed apartment building in Surfside, near Miami Beach, Florida, June 29, 2021. Joe Skipper, Reuters

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Janet Aguero woke up with a start—I heard a thunderous roar. Half of her apartment building has just collapsed in one of the worst urban disasters in US history.

“It was like an earthquake,” Aguero, 46, told AFP.

“My husband and I were asleep, and the shaking of the building woke us – very violently and forcefully.”

Through her window, all she could see was a thick cloud of dust.

Aguero, her husband Albert and their two children were in town for a week off, staying at her parents’ house on the 11th floor of the Champlain Towers South beachfront apartment complex.

Surfside is a town near Miami Beach with a population of 6,000 that is known for its white sandy beaches that attract tourists and wealthy retirees. It also has a large Jewish community.

South Champlain Towers is a 12-story concrete structure built in 1981, with 136 units used or rented by the owners.

The units facing the sea are those that are suddenly separated from the rest of the building for reasons yet to be determined.

Agueros were lucky – their apartment faces the street away from the ocean.

Albert Aguero shouted at emergency personnel, who arrived at the scene in about 10 minutes, and asked if the family should try to escape.

“Yeah – if you can get out, get out!” He was told.

– ‘Lots of feelings’ –

Agueros’ 22-year-old son, Justin Willis, said when the family left the apartment, they began to understand the severity of the disaster.

He said, “We’re looking to our left, the units’ doors are down. Half the entrance—you can start to see outside toward the beach.”

Willis, who plays on the University of Connecticut baseball team, added that the staircase was still there, but it was “kind of destroyed, and every other step is broken or missing.”

The horrific descent to the 11-storey ground floor seemed endless.

“Don’t even think about falling to the right,” Willis said. “I look at my feet and keep going.”

Working in full survival mode, the Aguero family got to the garage level in the building, found a break in all the ruins and ran to the beach, where Janet Aguero finally felt safe, broke down and cried.

“There were a lot of feelings,” she said.

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– Reason for hope –

While the Agueros were counting their blessings, the firefighters were using the stairs to snatch other residents from their balconies.

And the arduous search for survivors began.

In the early morning hours, a boy was pulled alive from under the rubble. The first death toll was given: one confirmed dead and 99 missing.

After dawn on Thursday, a Surfside community center several blocks away was converted into a meeting place for relatives of the missing. Survivors like Agueros went there to get information about their whereabouts.

Volunteers showed up with food, water and bedding. Personal hygiene kits were distributed, and relatives reported to the authorities those who may have been in the building when it collapsed.

Bettina Obayas, who did not speak about her aunt and uncle, provided a sample of her DNA to the authorities.

“They need it to verify. They want to know who his family is,” she told AFP.

Rescue operations were hampered by an underground fire, which was finally extinguished on Saturday by storms.

The death toll has slowly risen — four deaths were confirmed on Friday, and 11 as of midday on Tuesday.

But hopes of finding more survivors dwindled as the days went by, even as heavy machinery groaned lifting piles of concrete and about 300 firefighters, some with sniffer dogs, searched for signs of life.

– Questions –

Over the weekend, questions soon arose about the structural integrity of the building, which was undergoing construction work to obtain safety re-accreditation.

A study from 2020 concluded that the building experienced a slight decline in the 1990s. But the study author told CNN he didn’t know if the building’s collapse could be predicted.

An October 2018 report by city officials revealed concerns of “significant structural damage” to the complex, from the concrete slab under the pool deck to the columns and beams in the parking garage.

Jan Wodenicki, president of the Apartment Association, described the “accelerating” damage to the building since then, in a letter to residents in April.

The garage “always looked dilapidated,” Janet Aguero told AFP.

“It’s not in the best shape but you don’t think much of it. Well, there are cracks, and the paint is cracked, and it sinks all the time,” she said.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the site of the tragedy on Thursday.

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