Historically, these groups, and the lobbyists who represent them, have successfully pushed back against any policy they view as constrictive or unduly expensive. Florida has roughly 1.5 million residential condo units - among the most of any state - and a highly lucrative condo and co-op industry with many powerful players, from management companies and developers to firms specializing in condo law. Especially in the coastal environment.”īut meaningful reform, of the kind McGuinness imagined, has long been notoriously hard to enact. It’s what the building is sitting on that also counts, big time. “Because we’ve got to remember, it’s not only the building itself. “This terrible tragedy, which is a national tragedy, is going to change the building codes as they relate to certification and all existing buildings,” he said. Standing at the microphone, clad in a white polo shirt and slacks, McGuinness warned of a coming reckoning - one that would play out across the entire country. By the end of the day, at least one person was pronounced dead, with 99 residents from the condo’s 135 units reportedly unaccounted for the final count would land at 98, making it one of the deadliest engineering failures in the history of the United States. The next afternoon, while rescue crews searched for survivors, McGuinness appeared at an emergency meeting of the Surfside Town Commission, a body made up of the mayor, vice mayor and other elected officials. Andrew Moore for The New York Times, with drone assistance from Jake Butters. That’s all I could think, even then: It was unspeakable.” “There was this tremendous gap in the horizon staring back at me,” he said. In its place was a heap of concrete and steel. The building upon which he stood the previous day had nearly vanished. McGuinness rounded the corner and felt the air leave his lungs. Outside, the air was choked with smoke and particulate debris as fine as snow emergency vehicles were shrieking up Collins Avenue, the multilane thoroughfare that runs almost the entire length of Miami Beach. “Partial collapse, multiple fatalities - that’s all he could tell me,” McGuinness said. There’d been an incident at Champlain Towers South. The voice on the line belonged to Jason Greene, the assistant town manager for Surfside. They said their goodbyes and rode the elevator back to the lobby.Īround 1:45 a.m., McGuinness was awakened by the buzzing of his mobile phone on the bedside table. The day already felt uncomfortably hot, and the breeze, blowing at 15 miles an hour toward the ocean, did little to make things more pleasant. I would never have stayed up there if I had.” Together with the building manager for Champlain Towers South and a trainee from Surfside’s building-inspection unit, McGuinness walked the perimeter of the roof, assessing the anchor placements. “In retrospect, you look back at that moment - you search your memory,” McGuinness told me recently. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.
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