Florida condo resident claims the building 'swayed like a piece of paper' in a new lawsuit

• A third lawsuit was filed against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association.
• The lawsuit was filed by Raysa Rodriguez who had lived in the building for 17 years.
• She said the building "swayed like a piece of paper" in her class-action lawsuit.

A third lawsuit has been filed against the condominium association of the now-collapsed Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida.

The lawsuit was filed by Raysa Rodriguez, who lived in Unit 907 of the condominium. According to the Miami Herald, she lived in the building for 17 years and was just a few payments short of fully paying off her mortgage.

Rodriguez filed a class-action suit similar to the first lawsuit filed against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association by resident Manuel Drezner. Rodriguez's filing, however, requests that the two previously filed lawsuits against the condominium association be consolidated and that all evidence is kept to find out "who is to blame for this tragedy and all of them are held responsible."

Rodriguez's lawsuit also contains harrowing descriptions of her experience of the disaster where she said the building "swayed like a piece of paper."

A rumbling woke her in the middle of the night while she was in bed sleeping. Rodriguez tried to turn on her bedroom lamp but realized there was no power.

"A wall of dust hit me," Rodriguez said, according to the Herald, when she ran out onto her balcony.

Outside her unit, Rodriguez saw a "concrete column had pierced the hallway from floor to ceiling."

"I looked at the elevators. The elevator shafts were exposed, the doors were gone," Rodriguez wrote in the lawsuit.

The news outlet reports that Rodriguez's lawsuit argues that the condo association neglected the building's maintenance needs.

Since the days of the collapse, revealed documents and emails have put into question the infrastructural integrity of the building.

The condo in 2018, for example, showed signs of "major structural damage." And a 2020 study found that the land around the building had shown signs of sinking decades ago.

The son of a woman who is now missing told CNN she heard creaking noises the day before the collapse. Pablo Rodriguez said his mom called him the day before and said "she had woken up around 3 [or] 4 in the morning and had heard like some creaking noises. They were loud enough to wake her."

Officials so far identified at least 12 people dead after the collapse. Another 149 people still remain unaccounted for.