Miami Beach, Champlain Towers South apartment building collapse, Part 12 60

[tt]As the leaves of late summer wither ever so slightly, their mottled discolorations foretell their future. Soon, with the waning of daylight, their photosynthetic journey will halt, and gravity will return their mineral elements to the soil below.

Huddled amongst these trees have assembled the technological elite, intellectually curious, and professionally trained people of this land. Their ranks infiltrated as they are with charlatans, quacks, and poseurs; all stare in awe at the mighty forest that surrounds them.

The sun dappling their faces as each one takes in the light. “I know the reason the light shines!” says one. “I, too, know” says another, “but the light, it shines differently for me; reflected as if cast upon a scattering of invisible orbs.”

A third mills about, claiming there is not light at all. “Behold the mighty PowerPoint and gaze upon its infinite wisdom! It showeth thus the absence of light entirely! This pixel here! And that smudge outlined in chartreuse!”

What a tremendous cacophony all these voices make. It reverberates through the trunks like a flock of magpies what have been into the fermented crabapples.

But the light is growing ever dimmer. The playing of the shadows waning as the stomata gasp their final breaths. Darkness. Coldness.

The bleak monotony of winter marches ever closer. These ravenous minds yearn for a brightening sky to inform their views but none awaits. Only a monochrome landscape, stretching from woodland floor to the low gray stratus that hug the ground.

Unlimited shades of gray. [/tt]

Liked, for stomata among other things. And yes, the light does shine differently, for those of us in the other hemisphere: Spring approaches, not winter.

USA Today has had someone review the medical records. Apparently few autopsies were performed for religious reasons. At least 9 victims of 98 dead may have initially survived Surfside condo collapse, but were not found by rescue teams, investigation shows

In addition to the woman’s voice in the basement, which may refer to the teenage girl from 204, there are suppositions about victims from 704 and 1002, and descriptions of injuries to victims from these units:
[ul]
[li]212[/li]
[li]501[/li]
[li]802[/li]
[li]811[/li]
[li]1010[/li]
[li]1111[/li]
[/ul]

The NYT reviews the events around the penthouse addition and mentions the crane collapse. ‘They Were Bullies’: Inside the Turbulent Origins of the Collapsed Florida Condo

MaudSTL said:

Apparently few autopsies were performed for religious reasons.

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From the article:

Only one autopsy was performed. Otherwise, technicians conducted only external examinations and, in some cases, X-rays

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What a damning article on the whole process of design construction and permitting in this region of the country. The only thing I would say, from my experience, is that I don’t think things have changed all that much. It’s not unusual to see Cities, counties, and the State get intimidated into accepting substandard projects by developers and their lawyers.

Re: the NYT article linked above.

It says that Surfside had only a part-time building inspector and "delegated inspections of the towers back to the Champlain Towers builders...".

I may be overly naive here, but it seems to me that Surfside should have hired an additional Special Building Inspector, then. And assign that person to this job. The whole point of allowing this building was to bring in money to Surfside (according to the article). So it would seem appropriate to "spend a little to get a lot".

Besides, wouldn't the permit fees cover the cost of the inspection? That IS the point of permit fees, is it not?

spsalso

MaudSTL

"USA Today has had someone review the medical records. Apparently few autopsies were performed for religious reasons. At least 9 victims of 98 dead may have initially survived Surfside condo collapse, but were not found by rescue teams, investigation shows"

Thanks for the article. I find it highly disturbing on so any levels.

"Fire rescue logs indicate that officials knew hours after the 1:25 a.m. collapse at Champlain Towers South on June 24 that survivors remained in the mountain of debris. Rescue teams were in contact with live victims, and search dogs – one of the department’s most reliable indicators of life – confirmed human life."

You'd think as a "crime scene" autopsies would be mandated.. but suddenly "it was never a crime scene" but a death investigation??

Seems the County decided to pick and choose which records to keep or dispose of as well.
So much incompetence and subterfuge at the same time!

And once again the couple in 811..that were found holding their IDs...no visible injuries that would lead to death.

Just in case anyone missed it, this is one of the most detailed and touching records of the search and rescue efforts. And is it from any one of our tax paid employees? NO. It's from an Israeli Commander ...

Miami: A search and rescue diary:

MaudSTL (Computer) said:

In addition to the woman’s voice in the basement, which may refer to the teenage girl from 204, there are suppositions about victims from 704 and 1002, and descriptions of injuries to victims from these units:

212
501
802
811
1010
1111

Click to expand...

From the article:
Another person who did not appear to have immediate life-threatening injuries was Gloria Machado, 71, who lived in Unit 1111.

Records show Machado suffered “fractures of the skull and facial bones, ribs, spinal column, legs, and feet,” as well as “global laceration of the scalp with multiple skull fractures and multiple facial fractures.”

Six minutes after the collapse, however, 911 operators received a call from a man claiming to be Machado’s son, fire rescue logs show.

The caller said he “received a call from his mother” and she was “trapped inside her apartment 1111 and unable to get out,” logs show.

Quite honestly, those injuries might not have immediately killed her, but they seem inconsistent with someone being awake/alert enough to make a call. Also, she said she was trapped in her apartment, not that not that it had collapsed.

There was some speculation a few threads back that before the actual collapse, the structure may have sagged and twisted such that doors could not be opened. I wonder if the call was made before the building fell?

Charley - can this be moved to current page? Should I copy and paste there?
Obviously I did not see your call to move to a new location.
Thanks,]

Putting Together the Big Picture for the World Trade Center Disaster Investigation

What they did, and why it took exceedingly long, so exceedingly long.

SF Charlie
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Vance Wiley (Structural)25 Aug 21 18:44 said:

Quote (Vance Wiley (Structural)25 Aug 21 17:47
Quote (IEGeezer (Industrial)
Charley - can this be moved to current page? Should I copy and paste there?

Click to expand...

I don't know how to move it, I don't even know how to close my "part 11". but if it were my post,
I would edit it - copy the text form the edit page (where you can change it) - and paste into a post on this page.

Sorry for mansplaining it...

It has been mentioned earlier that some contractors placed slab pours to the level of the bottom of the upper reinforcing and stopped there to lay the upper reinforcing on the concrete and avoid the use of high chairs. This would require a delay for the slab to set for foot traffic and to support the reinforcing.
The proper casting of a concrete member - beam, column, slab, footing, or wall is monolithic - one casting with reconsolidation between the layers of placement - or through a properly prepared cold joint.
Had I caught a contractor leaving an as placed joint surface in concrete he would have been sandblasting the entire surface to remove the interface surface sufficient to expose aggregates solidly embedded in the prior pour. That is a bit expensive.
On one project the contractor did not place the temperature reinforcing in a topping slab which was placed over precast tees. The flanges of the tees had been intentionally roughened just like DOT girders and were correctly prepared for a topping slab placement. The contractor should have called for an inspection. The remaining pile of reinforcing was the clue. He was directed to place the reinforcing, clean the slab, and coat the surface with epoxy. The reinforcing was temperature reinforcing - not the principal reinforcing providing strength for floor support, as the reinforcing of slabs at CTS was.
Cold joints were a problem at FIU. What is with the Florida contractors?
The concrete is/was likely mixed in a batching plant and trucked to the site. It might have been pumped or perhaps hoisted in buckets to the elevation being placed if there were a crane on the site. The handling of concrete, even in the 1980s, was clearly defined in the codes and industry practice. Batch times, number of turns of the drum on the truck, slump, added water - all are supposed to be controlled. Mixes are and were designed and load tags provided with reference to specific approved mixes, and the concrete sampled for slump and compressive strength. And it remains a problem today.
Reinforced concrete is the most structurally important product in most structures that is actually created on the job. Under less than factory controlled conditions - like rain, temperature, and other factors. But on the job it becomes just hard work, with a deadline only an hour away if you want to finish it correctly.
And yes - that is basically delamination by default.
Thanks,

Thanks, Charlie

> There was some speculation a few threads back that before the actual collapse, the structure may have sagged and twisted such that doors could not be opened. I wonder if the call was made before the building fell?

Yes that seems likely, in the x11 stack at least. That is probably why 811 couldn't escape, even though they were awake and aware enough to get their IDs and choose their death pose (that was the speculation in the previous thread). The timestamp on the call that the woman in 1111 made to her son would be extremely interesting.

It all lines up, to me, with something failing low down in one of the x11 column stacks (L or M 9.1 probably), leading to load distribution (with noises and deformation) for some minutes until the connection with that M9.1-11.1 beam breaks, the pool deck becomes unsupported and starts puncture-shearing the deck columns.

local 10 said:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology held a news conference Wednesday morning to discuss its investigation into the June 24 partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building.

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NIST establishes team of experts to investigate cause of Surfside building collapse
NIST Establishes Expert Team to Investigate the Champlain Towers South Collapse

SF Charlie
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Red Corona (Computer)25 Aug 21 20:18 said:

It all lines up, to me, with something failing low down in one of the x11 column stacks (L or M 9.1 probably)

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(from a number of sources

>It all lines up, to me, with something failing low down in one of the x11 column stacks (L or M 9.1 probably), leading to load distribution (with noises and deformation) for some minutes until the connection with that M9.1-11.1 beam breaks, the pool deck becomes unsupported and starts puncture-shearing the deck columns.


And yet, 611 (and the ground floor tenants) were the only ones that got out. Might the upper floors have actually deformed before/more so than the lower floors? Would the twisting (for want of a better word) have gotten worse as you went higher, despite the initial failure being at the base?