re: Real bad condo collapse in Surfside, FL

We live in an idiocracy. People elect politicians who seem cool and have some personality. Actual competency is a distant consideration.

I thought sand was good to build on

I was reading there was a navy bombing exercise off the coast of Florida last week that recorded a 3.9 magnitude earthquake.

No idea if the two are linked but an area that far south wouldn't have requirements for seismic design at least not in 1981.

There was also talks of there being renovations on the rooftop so a combination of corrosion, any slight shifting to seismic activity/settling, overload of the structure.

The entire building looks like a pancake.

I hope they didn’t use the same all female engineer firm that orchestrated the FIU bridge collapse.

Holy shite

Not sure how anyone on the collapsed side lived through that.

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Only one death from the middle of the night collapse?
Seems implausible

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That might be a sign that you are overvaluing journalists. It's time to start interpreting news reports to better grasp what's really happening.

It just means that at the moment that piece of news was reported, only one body had been recovered. The number will go up much higher. Until then other residents are simply missing.

can't speak to structural high rise design, as I've only done bridge design in louisiana, but we usually don't account for seismic loads here, as it would be too uneconomical.
Instead we have our own factors like LADV-11 to make up for unaccounted-for loads.
Not sure if building design in FL would require seismic load.

We do use epoxy-coated rebar in all saltwater regions, though.

I'm thinking maybe corrosion, plus exceeding allowable load with the renovation equipment. Probably poor design.

If it was a foundation issue, I feel like there would be multiple buildings in that area collapse.

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Video of the collapse

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If you were in the far right side, you just got woken up in time to get crushed to death.

If you were in the far left side, you should go buy a lotto ticket.

Florida is known for its cavernous limestone and sinkholes that open up abruptly. Does it reach as far south as Miami ? I agree that this appears more likely to be as structural issue.