Letter Warned Of Collapsed Miami Building’s Problems Months Ago

The board president of the collapsed high-rise near Miami warned residents two months before the deadly tragedy that parts of the building’s infrastructure were seriously decaying, according to a letter obtained by multiple media outlets Tuesday. 

In the letter dated April 9, Surfside’s Champlain Towers South’s condominium association president Jean Wodnicki explained to residents why an assessed $15 million in repairs to the building was necessary. 

“The concrete deterioration is accelerating,” she wrote, noting that the damage was expected to “multiply exponentially” in the coming years. “When you can visually see the concrete spalling (cracking), that means that the rebar holding it together is rusting and deteriorating beneath the surface,” she explained. 

“The roof situation got much worse, so extensive roof repairs had to be incorporated,” she wrote in the letter, which was first obtained by The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. 

In one ominous line, Wodnicki writes: “A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now.”