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Florida officials are launching multiple investigations into the Miami Beach condominium collapse that left at least 12 people dead

Jun 30, 2021, 06:58 IST
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Members of the South Florida Urban Search and Rescue team look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 26, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
  • Elected officials will launch multiple probes into last week's Florida condo collapse.
  • The Miami-Dade County mayor said her team will look for ways to prevent a similar tragedy.
  • The county AG also announced Tuesday she plans a grand jury investigation into the incident.
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Elected officials in Florida promised to launch multiple investigations "at every possible angle" into the condominium that collapsed in Florida on June 24.

As of Tuesday, at least 12 people are confirmed dead after Champlain Towers South partially collapsed, with 149 people still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said her team will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts about building safety concerns and develop construction safeguards "to ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again."

Miami-Dade state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Tuesday she plans to request a grand jury to investigate the collapse.

"Few words can describe the shock and horror that the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building has evoked in all of us," she said.

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At a briefing earlier Tuesday, Cava indicated she was "very supportive" of Fernandez-Rundle's push for a grand jury investigation and "pledged" her "full cooperation." When asked what the grand jury will look for, Cava said, "like all of us: answers."

"I will do, and my team will do, everything possible to aid them in their efforts to continue that investigation," she said.

It's still not entirely clear what caused part of the 12-story condominium to tumble to the ground, but experts say a structural failure at the bottom of the building could be to blame.

Just two days before the collapse, a pool contractor who visited the building took photos of damage in the garage, showing cracks in concrete, corroded rebar, and wet floors in the pool equipment room.

The contractor, who remained anonymous, told The Miami Herald he thought the amount of water at Champlain Towers was unusual. A staff member who was showing him around told the contractor he "thought it was waterproofing issues," according to a report from The Herald.

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The deepest area of standing water in the building was said to be located near parking spot 78 in the garage, which was directly under the condominium's pool deck. The Herald reported Sunday a 2018 inspection report flagged a flaw in the building's original design, with a lack of proper drainage on the pool deck causing "major structural damage."

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