Saturday marked two years since the Champlain Towers South condominium building in Surfside collapsed, perishing the lives of 98 people and producing one of the worst tragedies witnessed in South Florida history.
The town of Surfside held events to remember the victims, beginning at 1:22 a.m., the exact time the disaster began to unfold. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Raied "Ray" Jadallah lit a torch directly across from the site to start a somber day of mourning.
When the 10 a.m. memorial event got underway at nearby Veterans Park, roughly 150 people were seated in folded chairs. It was a mix of neighbors, survivors, and loved ones of the victims.
Elected officials came and spoke, too, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava and State Sen. Shevrin Jones.
“Two years after we lost 98 precious lives in the tragic collapse of Champlain Towers, grieving families, the local community, and the entire state continue to mourn,” said DeSantis. “The memory of those 98 Floridians will never be forgotten, and we will keep their families in our prayers.”
“We also remain thankful for the hundreds of first responders who immediately rushed in to look for survivors and remained on the pile, working around-the-clock for days following the tragic collapse,” he added.
Levine-Cava, who appeared on TV and press briefings updating the public for weeks after the collapse, told those gathered that the town of Surfside was not left on its own to cope with the horrific tragedy.
“Through the 33 days that we were here on site until the recovery of the final victim, I know that I felt the support of the entire world,” she said. “The prayers of millions of people in different languages, time zones — it strengthened us so that we would not have to bear the burden of this tragedy alone."
‘And together we showed the unrelenting resilience of Miami-Dade County," she noted.
Also addressing the memorial were relatives of the 98 victims, including Tali Naibryf. Her brother, Ilan, 21, died in the disaster.
“Two years ago today, we were all strangers and now you’re all forever a part of me,” Naibryf said. “On June 24, 2021, I lost my baby brother, Ilan. I struggle to find the right words to share today. I wanted to tell you about Ilan, but I could spend hours doing that. It would never bring him any justice.”
Mike Noriega spoke about the agony of seeing the rubble, where eventually first responders would find his deceased 92-year-old grandmother, Hilda.
“The scene was so devastating and overwhelming,” Noriega said. “All I could do was just fall to my knees and cry out to God: ‘God is this real? Is this a bad dream I’m gonna wake up from?’”
When the memorial ended around 11 a.m. Rosa Ruiz, who lives in Surfside, walked away from the tented area and wiped away tears. She used to clean and cook for victim Nancy Krass Levin, whom she called after seeing the rubble, but got no answer. Ruiz described Krass Levin as sweet and loved her plants. Every Friday she would cook the dinner for Shabbat, or the Jewish sabbath, with Ruiz for Levin’s family.
Ruiz described the screams of people on the street and the sirens in those early hours of June 24. The sound of trucks going by for weeks with the debris still makes her cringe.
“People who don’t live here can get a respite from the pain,” she said in Spanish. “Those of us who live here have it everyday. We open our eyes and see that space. I can’t even walk by [the property].”
Ruiz said she and her husband are thinking maybe someday soon they’ll move away from the town that used to be a great place to live for them.
Others who attended the memorial included Martin Langesfeld. The building collapse claimed the life of his sister, Nicky Langesfeld.
Standing alongside him were two others who did not lose loved ones at Surfside but were all too familiar with the pain of such a public tragedy.
Monika Iken lost her husband in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, while Mike Dempsey survived the same 9/11 horror and the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival outside a Las Vegas hotel.
Like others, Langesfeld, Iken and Dempsey want to see Surfside officials work with the developer to honor the victims with a memorial on the property.
“A proper memorial has to be on this site, it’s sacred ground,” Dempsey said. “It’s all about respect. It took us many weeks and months after September 11th with a lot of politicians, developers to work through it but we were all included. We didn’t cut people out of the process.”
Langesfeld said he and others are “not trying to stop that building from going up.”
“What we're trying to do is incorporate a memorial on the site of the collapse and work with the developer … in a respectful way where the developer can look out for his profit holders and we the family can look for our respect,” said Langesfeld, who is circulating a petition to get a memorial on the property itself.
In 2021, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman approved the sale of the Surfside oceanfront property to a private bidder in order to compensate victims' families and the people who survived.
Last year, Dubai-based DAMAC International purchased the 1.8-acre site for $120 million, and recently unveiled plans for a new luxury condo building. The proposed building, designed by London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, includes 57 units, ranging in size from 4,000 to 9,000 square feet. It would include a business center, event space and two pools.
Surfside officials have pledged to build a permanent memorial — not on the property but on 88th Street, a short distance from the condo building.
Two years later, the cause of the collapse remains under federal investigation.
Last week, however, the National Institute of Standards and Technology — which is in charge of the investigation — reported that the building's swimming pool deck failed to comply with the original building codes and standards, and that there were many areas of severe strength deficiency.
Besides design understrength, investigators reported signs of corrosion, misplaced reinforcement and the placement of heavier and additional plant containers on the deck than those in the original plans. These and other factors led to “ critically low margins against failure,” investigators said.
Some worry a new building will go up before the National Institute of Standards and Technology finishes its investigation and explain what led the building to fail.
Federal investigators said they expect their technical work to be completed by next spring, with a report on the cause and any potential recommendations for updating codes, standards or practices to come in 2025.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Copyright 2023 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit WLRN 91.3 FM. 9(MDAyNDY5ODMwMDEyMjg3NjMzMTE1ZjE2MA001))
