SURFSIDE — Since the
tragedy in Surfside, condo residents all over Florida have
been paying close attention to the conditions of their own
buildings and wondering if small blemishes that have been
ignored could be a warning sign of a collapse, later on down
the line.
People in Century
Village in Boca Raton know their buildings are the same age
as Champlain Towers South. They told the CBS12 News I Team
they are concerned about heavy rain during storms and water
intrusion, especially since hurricane season began earlier
this month.
Florida has 1.5 million residential condos and 600,000 of
them are 40 years or older. Post Surfside, for all of them,
water is an enemy not to be underestimated.
“There are many signs
of water getting in,” Helene Harris told the I Team, the
week of Surfside’s one year anniversary.
In 2016, Harris moved to Century Village from New York. Many
of her neighbors are also native New Yorkers, and they’re
proud of their reputation for being outspoken, blunt, never
taking ‘no’ for an answer. |
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“It’s hurricane
season,” said Century Village resident Suzanne Sheber, “When
we had that near-storm a week or so ago, I know many of the
residents were in fear that we now have more damage. I have
a water meter. I go into my closet and I can see day to day
how much water intrusion there is. The remedy is not coming
fast enough.”
It’s fair to say right now many New York attitudes inside
Century Village are on high, as residents are in a conflict
with the cable company that provides service to the complex.
It’s not about monthly bills. The fight is over what’s
happening along some of the exterior walls in the community,
a concern that has been amplified because of the Surfside
collapse that killed 98.
“It has to be addressed and our safety is what matters,”
Harris said.
One building in particular is the focus of the anxiety and
the arguments. Wolverton C has several gaping holes and
water is getting inside the structure, according to
residents. It’s happening where covered ducts — for
protecting the TV and internet wires — have been attached to
the building.
The resident newspaper of Century Village, The Village
Sentry, published by Fred Hadley, has been covering this
ongoing problem and the lack of response so far.
There are more than 100 buildings in the community. The
buildings that are two, three, and four stories tall have
the same ducts.
“How can that be safe? If that’s getting pounded with
hurricanes, air, water, wind, if it gets in there. So then
do we become the next pancake? I don’t want to be in a
pancake,” Harris said.
Picking up on her point, here is why water intrusion is
worrisome:
The week after the Surfside collapse, the CBS12 News I Team
detailed the findings of a 2018 field survey report at the
Champlain Towers South.
A company hired by the association, Morabito Consulting, had
found multiple spots around the building where there was
cracking.
“[We] do not see this crack as a source of water
infiltration,” one part of the report reads, referring to
one of many cracks.
Forensic engineers are now exploring if that conclusion was
wrong, if water caused heavy corrosion deep inside the
building, beyond view.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is the
agency investigating what happened in Surfside. There are
six separate teams. Earlier this month, they gave an update,
only to say they haven’t been able to pinpoint the cause of
the collapse and that could take another year, maybe two.
Responding to Surfside, lawmakers in Tallahassee passed a
bill about condo safety during a special session back in
May. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it.
The takeaways are:
Condos will need to be re-certified after 30 years if they
are three stories or higher, or are 25 years old and within
3 miles of the ocean. Then, every 10 years after that,
they’ll need to be re-certified.
And Florida will require condominium association boards to
maintain money in reserves to cover critical repairs,
starting in 2025. For decades, current law has allowed
boards to waive the requirement.
Boca Raton attorney Lou Caplan is an expert in the laws that
govern condo boards. After Surfside, he sent a letter to
Gov. DeSantis calling for a state condo task force to be
empaneled. We asked him about what lawmakers have just done.
“Well [for condo residents] it’s going to be special
assessments potentially, especially for these associations
that have not been funding reserves over the last 7 to 10 to
20 years. As for Senate Bill 4, it’s really the
municipalities that are going to have to enforce the
statewide requirements,” Caplan said. “I think it’s more
palatable at this point, even though [the law] is going to
affect people’s bottom line and affect them financially..
but it's much more palatable and I think the beautiful part
of the legacy of Surfside is now we’re going to have safe
buildings as opposed to inexpensive buildings.”
Back in Century Village, Helene Harris talks about the
legacy of Surfside, too. One year later, she told the I Team
a positive effect of the devastating collapse is the pivot
towards urgency, away from procrastination.
In condos, repairs that might have been “put off until
later” are now seen as time sensitive. And potentially
life-saving. And Helene said she’ll keep speaking up when
things need to be fixed.
“We have stucco cracking and we have to determine what needs
to be repaired, how it needs to be repaired. The cracks
could be from many factors but one thing we see are the
conduits from the cable wires going in, and we didn’t see
the cracks before that.”
The I Team has contacted the cable company in question about
these concerns and we are waiting on a response at
publishing time.