What Caused the Miami Condo Collapse?
Could the impacts of global warming have had anything to do with the Miami condo collapse?
Global warming is having a negative impact on older buildings around the country that experts say were never built for the climate they now find themselves in. Architects and engineers design buildings and other structures, like bridges, to operate within the parameters of the local climate. They’re built using materials and following design standards that can withstand the range of temperatures, rainfall, snow, and wind that are expected, plus any geological issues such as earthquakes, subsidence, and groundwater levels. However, for buildings that were built decades ago, like the one that just collapsed in Florida, the climate they were built to withstand has changed.
In many places, due to global climate change, buildings are being forced to exist at the outer ranges of their temperature, not once in a while, as they were designed to tolerate, but on a regular basis. To some extent, these impacts will be localized and containable, with fairly simple remedies. For example, overheating can be reduced by shading windows with awnings or blinds, good insulation, and ample ventilation. Perhaps more worrying are the insidious effects of climate change which gradually undermine the core functions of a building in less obvious ways – and may have contributed to the Miami condo collapse.
Buildings in coastal areas are especially susceptible as the chloride in saltwater accelerates rusting. Rising sea levels will raise the water table and make it saltier, affecting building foundations, while salt spray will spread further on stronger winds. This all creates a condition that the expert refer to as a kind of “concrete cancer.”
The recent tragic collapse of the Miami condo building may be an early warning of this process gaining speed. While the exact cause of the collapse is still being investigated, some are suggesting it could be linked to climate change.
Whether or not the link to climate change proves to be true, it is nevertheless a wake-up call to the fragility of our buildings. It should also be seen as a clear demonstration of a critical point: wealth does not protect against the effects of climate change. Rich nations have the financial clout to adapt more rapidly and mitigate these impacts, but they can’t stop them at the border. Climate change is indiscriminate. Buildings are vulnerable to these impacts no matter where in the world they are, and if anything, the modern buildings of developed countries have more things in them that can go wrong than simpler traditional structures.
The sooner we begin retrofitting existing buildings and constructing new ones that can withstand climate change, the better.
This is complete bullshit. You should be ashamed! We are on to you.
How could global warming be the cause of the subject building collapse when we know that global warming is a GLOBALCONDITION, and we have one building collapse out of thousands world wide, constructed of concrete, and located on the ocean? The person who wrote the above paper does not appear to have any technical basis for even questing the cause.
morons lies lies and more lies
This story is so full of sh– , We all know now that their were many violations in that building . nothing was ever done to fix the problems , and code violations where not fixed . This is Human era and not the weather.
Bingo- two other issues- lack of proper moisture remediation/protection in the original design and the possibility of foundational problems – like developing sink hole scenarios (which you can’t plan for).
Yes 20-30 year concrete technology may be insufficient by today’s standards – but again as you point out maintenance was NOT performed, and should have been sufficient and if not – the building should have been replaced.
yes indeed I agree, what about the buildings built in the colonisation period, what rediculass claims about climat change, it been goining for centuraries.
Who would have thought that Florida is hot in the summer? Who would have thought that a building built near the ocean would have problems with rust and corrosion?
Oh wait, EVERYONE! Where did this idiot get his info and documentation? Where is the evidence to support his conclusions? He has none!!
Good Luck Luck did a better job of verifiable reporting in three sentences than Mike Strong did in his whole article. Mike, you’re nothing but a cheap socialist propogandist for the Dums, and no, I did not misspell the name of the socialist party.
could it just be corner cutting in the building work,the twin towers should never have collapsed like it did ,blame it on climate change instead of bad building practices
I am surprised Fauci his not clocked in
I don’t believe it’s climate change. More likely erosion of its foundation by the constant flow back and forth of the sea water combined with the wind.
Falso. Ninguna temperatura climatica por encima de los dos grados actual en relacion con el promedio de hace 30 anos, provoca ese derrumbe. Lo que si es cierto e indiscutible, fueron los tejes y manejes de la ciudad y la certificacion de la obra en su periodo inicial. Busque informacion, Mike, no sea tarado.
Fake. No climatic temperature above the current two degrees in relation to the average of 30 years ago, causes that collapse. What is true and indisputable, were the weaving and handling of the city and the certification of the work in its initial period. Get some information, Mike, don’t be a jerk.
Excuse me .. while I go over here and ?? at such a ‘woke’ way of thinking ! Smh !
I prefer a more direct investigation into the cause (s) for the building collapsing, then the ‘pie in the sky’ idea of climate change being the cause. The building codes in the U.S. are far more stringent then elsewhere and the only weakness -in-construction could be a batch of concrete not mixed to proper specs, or, severely corroded support steel, such as rebar. But climate change?
The “Great Plains Life Building”, the tallest building in Lubbock, Texas was twisted by a tornado, several decades ago and it is still occupied today!I
There remains more likely that toothaches being caused by ‘climate Change’ then that building collapsing.
Attention should be focused more directly to it being purposely caused by human intervention. Check any sound recordings for an anomaly occurring just before it’s collapse.
Climate change is a total crock of shite, they have been flipping back and forth from global warming to global cooling every 50 yrs or so since the 1800’s it’s the elites attempt at conning Americans into giving up their freedom, dont fall for it. it’s all BS
The writer of this story is absolutely delusional. Climate change “global warming” had nothing to do with this collapse. Any 6th grader knows that the earth goes through climate cycles. And over the years there have been hundreds (perhaps thousands) of these cycles.
If this building collapsed as a result of climate change/sea level rise, etc. why weren’t other buildings next to this one affected? It’s obvious that the writer is either dumb as a bag of rocks, or more likely, trying to perpetuate a political narrative.
I agree. It has been reported that this building was settling 3 mm per year or 120 mm in 40 years. That equates to approx. 5 inches. There was something going on under the building and no one, including building inspectors looked any further than the settling. There was a Home Owners Assoc. that knew about the settling and also did nothing. Now it looks as though CYA is going on and in the end global warming will probably be blamed and will have had nothing to do with the collapse.
So then climate change must have been responsible for the 9/11 tragedy as well? Let us blame (so called) Climate change on all tragedies. Start mailing checks and passing bad laws and then see what happens.. Look to the skies and wonder what those Chem trail’s are doing. Research! Research everything.
Touche’
yes indeed
In my formative years I was not that far from the sea and one of the things we learned early on, as a salt-water “bonica,” was how effectively and timely salt erodes, even when dealing with traces of salt found in the wind blowing in from the sea. That being said we appreciated bathing in salty-sea water for curing purposes especially when suffering with an issue like poison Ivy. Bathing in clean-salty-sea water with its mineral composition really seemed to sped up the healing process and reduced the irritable, accompanying, and annoying itch before healing.
Oh, we likewise didn’t use sea-salt water and uncleaned salt sand as a concrete mix because we were told, by some of the so-called-old timers, the two apparently weren’t compatible for the long run .
Global warming?? We build these buildings and then what, oh no, the ice age hits us. Let nature take care of her business. The earth will take care of itself.
“Chloride in salt water, of course, accelerates rusting”, but why was the explosion on the 4th floor clearly visible, captured at the camera ?
Crap! Try concepts like spalling, e.g: galvanic reaction of rebar•steel, resulting in structural weakness. Also, building settling of, say, a millimeter or more per year.
These articles should be vetted; the credibility of your site hinges on lack of politicization and bias.
Idiots want me to think Climate change caused the collapse! Poor maintenance and owners not taking care of their property and squeezing every nickel out of the property is the reason for the collapse!
This article is a good example of how to draw a conclusion and then justify it without providing any evidence.
What else do you want to blame on climate change. Climate change has been going on since the beginning of time. You blame cow facts, tree farts, human farts…give it a break. I would guess the cause had something to do with bad products, cutting corners, human greed. GET REAL AND GET A LIFE. Not everything can be the fault of climate change!!
Greedy crooked GlobalDemSocom builders did it, every1 knows that’s a DEM stronghold
The first eye witness that was interviewed said that she heard a loud boom before the building collapsed. Never heard from her again, she lived in the section that did not collapse.
What a load of manure. I am a forensic structural engineer, and I can tell you, based on everything I’ve heard, this building collapsed as a result of poor detailing and design and/or bad construction leaving the building vulnerable to water intrusion and then the inevitable water intrusion occurring over a period of many years (the lifetime of the structure), causing corrosion of the steel reinforcing bars, this corrosion reaching an advanced state where rust packing of the reinforcing bars caused the protective cover of concrete to crack, and allow more water intrusion, causing the deterioration to accelerate. The conditions were discovered and reported years ago, and were subsequently ignored by the condo association. But, hey, that didn’t fit the narrative. Yeah, it was global warming, yeah right!!!!! Fricking stupidity.
There isn’t such a thing as Global Warming and the climate is changing every second just as it has since the beginning of time. I still remember when I was 5 years old when I stayed under the wagon while my mother picked cotton on my aunt’s farm. It was hot as hell under there. All I had was jug of water wrapped with burlap and a box of animal cookies under there. I wish some of these tree huggers could have been under that wagon too. Yes, it was just as hot then as it is now. I think global warming and climate change is a hoax.
The real culprit is “Human Greed”!
First pictures showed very few pieces of rebar in some of the broken concrete.
If the builder cheated on that for more profit, what else did he cheat on?
Where was the building inspector while this was being built?
What a shame for the lost love ones.
So called “CLIMATE CHANGE crisis” is a LIE . . . and SO is THIS writer of this GARBAGE piece. This is what happens when IDIOTS like this does NOT look for the FACTS, such as BUILDING CODE violations. One Enlightened Patriot. Team Trump And His Allies 2020 – MAGA (WE’RE NOT going away!).
Total bulls—t this article and written by a ‘weak’ Mike Strong who has jumped on the Global warming gravy train.
Recent climate change has only affected us by one or maybe two degrees. The temperature differences between each of our normal annual seasons can be up to 30 or even 40 degrees difference.
The climate change debacle (fraud) is between two factions….those who hold patents for solar electricity and so on…and those who supply fossil oils.
We have been conditioned (as with many conditionings in our lives) into believing the difference between both “factions.”
As a retired engineer, and construction specialist, the collapsed building would have collapsed after many years of exposure to a strongly salty ((sodium chloride) environment which corrodes unprotected steel which is subsequently weakend to the point of losing it’s original strength.
The corrosion has the clear effect of “reducing the thickness” of the affected steel
More and more of us are realising that global warming does happen (and has happened for millions of years in “cycles”), however, we should not be sucked in by such foolishness that suggests that global warning (now referred more to as ‘climate change’) is a man-made phenomenon…….’cows & cars farting’.
The young girl known as Greta T has been put on the bandwagon to promote the “man-made” theory.
If Greta’s / their message is actually to try and convince us to clean up our planet (includes plastic bags and so on), then I am totally in favour of it, ………but to try and lay blame on man for creating a naturally-occurring phenomenon such as climate change, and now extending to a collapsed building…. is just beyond belief to a ‘normal’ logical & sensible?
Michael from New Zealand
I agree with most of what Mr Donovan says, however, I do not believe that there is any evidence that good concrete can be degraded by long term exposure to salt. Bridge decks are made of concrete and are exposed to salt and there does not appear to be a problem. My view is that the buildings foundation failed, causing the large cracks. If that is the case then repairing the cracks would be a waste of time.
Utter nonsense! Temps are in the normal range.As an architectural craftsman l saw a weak design flaw. Those balconies were one above the other for esthetics without regard for structural integrity. Balconies should have been alternately placed on either side of the structure retaining the esthetics but eliminating the structural weakness. Maintainable was obviously incompetent but would not have resulted in collapse if balconies were distributed alternately on both sides of the building. Who ever approved that design and drawing is in big trouble.
Maintainence was the word l used. Google changed that to maintainable without notice. Hate google.
I recently watched a 1950 documentary about the sea on Turner Classic Movies wherein the discussion was global warming!71 years ago! It’s political bullshit.