Champlain Towers South exposed and deteriorated rebar (Getty)
Raysa Rodriguez recounts a harrowing escape from her unit at the collapsed Surfside condominium, and lays out mounting warning signs in a newly filed lawsuit.
Among them: a concrete chunk that had fallen from the garage ceiling and a “wide crack” above her parking space. In her suit, which seeks class action status, Rodriguez also cites flooding in the underground garage dating back at least a decade that was reported by a former maintenance manager.
Two days before the collapse, a contractor who was jarred by the garage flooding, cracks and corrosion, alerted a building staff member. The staff member responded that water was pumped from the basement so often that pump motors were replaced every two years, according to the complaint.
Kyle Bagenstose and Romina Ruiz-Goiriena
An April letter sent from the president of the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association said that damage to the doomed building’s basement garage had “gotten significantly worse” since an inspection about two and a half years earlier and that deterioration of the building’s concrete was “accelerating.”
The letter also suggested that millions of dollars in needed repairs had been a subject of frustration among residents. The letter offers a glimpse into the events leading up to the building s deadly collapse last week in Surfside, Florida, that has left 11 people dead and over 150 missing.