Surfside Officials: We Weren't Notified Of Severe Deterioration Before Condo Collapse

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-miami-area-condo-collapse/2021/07/08/ [login to see] /officials-not-notified-of-severe-deterioration-before-surfside-condo-collapse
Nine months before a massive section of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., came showering down, an engineering firm called Morabito Consultants found "severely deteriorated" concrete throughout the building, including in load-bearing structures known as corbels.

According to a document acquired by NPR from an anonymous source, the company's probe, conducted between June and October 2020, found problems that appeared even more grave than those identified in an earlier 2018 study of the condo conducted by the same company.

The Maryland-based firm, hired by the condo association's board, is widely respected in the construction industry, in part for helping save another Florida condominium from collapse a decade earlier.

A spokesman for Morabito Consultants declined to answer a detailed list of questions submitted by NPR about the company's work at the condo site.

A spokesman for the Surfside condo association board said the firm never issued a clear warning to its leadership or the residents of Champlain Towers South. Town officials said they weren't notified at all of the findings.