Investigators: Florida Condo Collapse Began Weeks Earlier

A slow, silent failure—likely invisible to residents—started bringing down Champlain Towers South three weeks before the Surfside, Florida, condo partially collapsed in 2021, federal investigators say. In a report released Monday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded the first structural breakdown happened in early June at two key garage column connections beneath the pool deck, setting off a gradual shift of weight that ultimately led to the deaths of 98 people on June 24, the Wall Street Journal reports.

NIST found the complex was vulnerable from the start: its original design did not fully meet the building codes in place 40 years ago, and the way it was constructed strayed even more from that design, further weakening the structure. "In some locations, the design provided less than half of the code-required strength," said NIST investigator Judith Mitrani-Reiser, according to the AP. Later additions—heavy planters and thick pavers installed on the pool deck in the 1990s—added significant extra load that had not been accounted for, compounding decades of corrosion. The report says warning signs in the weeks before June 24, 2021—including a patio door popping from its frame, misaligned entry gates, cracks in walls, and increased water leaking in the garage—went unrecognized. Meanwhile, five years on from the tragedy, there is still no memorial to the victims, the Miami Herald reports.