Video shows cracks in Champlain Towers a YEAR before Surfside condo collapsed: Prospective buyer says she didn't buy a condo there after seeing flaws in parking garage - as death toll rises to 78
Footage shot by a prospective buyer showed cracks and puddles in the Surfside condo building in Miami a year before it collapsed - as the death toll rises to 78 and recovery workers toiled for a 16th day to find victims in the rubble.
The video, which was shared with DailyMail.com, was taken in the garage of the Champlain Towers South building in July last year.
Fiorella Terenzi, who had toured the complex in anticipation of buying a unit on the sixth floor, said what she saw in the garage ultimately turned her off buying in the building.
Terenzi's video showed wide cracks in the ceiling of the garage that appeared to have been repaired and painted over.
It also showed what appeared to be water puddles in the ceiling.
The video was taken by prospective buyer Fiorella Terenzi in the garage of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside in July last year
Several engineers reviewed Terenzi's video and determined there were no obvious red flags that could have pointed to the building collapsing some 12 months later, according to the Miami Herald.
The parking garage that Terenzi filmed is the same one in which an engineer flagged in a 2018 report as having 'major structural damage' to the pool deck area and underground parking garage.
The engineering report from the firm of Morabito Consultants did not warn of imminent danger from the damage.
It did, however, note the need for extensive and costly repairs to fix the systemic issues with Champlain Towers South.
Investigators, who have been at the site since the building collapsed on June 24, are still working to determine how it collapsed.
It has previously been suggested that existing damage to a ground-floor pool deck and, or, concrete cracking throughout the building could potentially be behind the collapse.
Structural engineers have warned, however, that the investigation into the cause will be long-term given they have been limited so far because the rescue operation is ongoing.
Terenzi, who had toured the complex in anticipation of buying a unit on the sixth floor, said what she saw in the garage ultimately turned her off buying in the building
Terenzi's video showed wide cracks in the ceiling of the garage that appeared to have been repaired and painted over
It also showed what appeared to be water puddles in the ceiling
It comes as an additional 14 bodies were uncovered in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building by Friday.
Another 62 people still remain unaccounted for.
No one has been found alive since the first hours after the building fell on June 24.
The painstaking search for survivors shifted to a recovery effort at midnight on Wednesday after authorities said they had come to the conclusion that there was 'no chance of life' in the rubble.
Rescue workers and emergency support teams from Florida and several other states have been putting in 12-hour shifts, 24 hours a day to search for the victims.
Hope of finding survivors was briefly rekindled after workers demolished the remainder of the building Sunday night, allowing access to new areas of debris.
Some voids where survivors could have been trapped did exist, mostly in the basement and the parking garage, but no one was found alive.
Instead, teams recovered more than a dozen additional victims.
It comes as an additional 14 bodies were uncovered in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building by Friday, bringing the death toll to 78
The painstaking search for survivors shifted to a recovery effort at midnight on Wednesday after authorities said they had come to the conclusion that there was 'no chance of life' in the rubble
Paraguay Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo has confirmed that the bodies of the Paraguayan First Lady's sister, Sophia López Moreira, her husband Luis Pettengill and their youngest child were among the bodies identified on Thursday.
Moreira is the sister of President Mario Abdo BenÃtez's wife, Silvana.
The family owned an apartment inside the condo, and were said to have received their Covid-19 vaccines hours before the collapse, which also happened on Luis' birthday.
It is not yet clear whether the bodies of their other two children have been found in the collapsed structure.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the work to recover victims was 'moving forward with great urgency' in order to bring closure to the families of victims who have spent an agonizing two weeks waiting for news.
'This is a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects all of us very deeply,' she said of the latest death toll.
'We know that there will be long-term impacts for the teams on the front line. They have given so much of themselves in these first two weeks.'
Paraguay Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo has confirmed that the bodies of the Paraguayan First Lady's sister, Sophia López Moreira, her husband Luis Pettengill and their youngest child were among the bodies identified on Thursday