LESSONS FROM A BUILDING COLLAPSE: WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?

In the early morning of June 24, 2021, many of us in Southeast Florida and in the rest of the country waked-up to the news of a tragic partial building collapse in Surfside. A young boy was rescued alive from the collapsed building as the disaster unfolded early that day and an urgent massive search and rescue effort was getting underway. This heroic effort, involving local, state, federal and even international resources, eventually morphed into a recovery operation that ended on 26 July when the last remains were identified. A total of 98 individuals perished in this terrible event.

Collaterally with these actions, carried out live on numerous media outlets for the entire world to see, numerous other entities and government agencies sprang into action in pursuit of various lines of investigation. and examination of possible causes and exploration of what may need to change to prevent a repetition of this catastrophe. These efforts include the designation of a National Construction Safety Team, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), charged with determining the technical causes and contributing factors of the collapse and with making pertinent recommendations. Also, a Grand Jury process convened by the State Attorney Office in Miami-Dade County to investigate what may have contributed to this disaster and make recommendation regarding needed change.

For my part, as these efforts unfolded and got underway, I posted an article here on this site on 25 June 2021, the day after the collapse (see Building Collapse in Surfside, Florida: Why?) (http://mitigat.com/2021/06/25/20/56/19/building-collapse-in-surfside-florida-why/)offering my opinion on plausible causes based on the limited evidence available at the time. Later on, around 15 September 2021, I wrote a white paper exploring factors that may have contributed to the building collapse, lessons to be learned, and those practices and areas that may need to change and in what way, to avoid repetition of this disaster.

Following is the white paper I mentioned before:

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