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The cause of the Champlain’s sudden and spectacular fall Thursday remained undetermined. Some engineering experts say the collapse may have been due to a rare confluence of structural deficiencies and lack of maintenance in a coastal area where buildings are particularly vulnerable to corrosion from saltwater and salt air.
For many who live in Surfside, the disaster has fueled anxiety about the challenges of maintaining local residential buildings. A string of mid-rise and high-rise condos — some decades old, others brand new — loom over the Atlantic shoreline sitting on a plateau of limestone, a porous rock that allows rising seawater to seep up from below.