Death toll rises to 12 as Biden plans to visit site, prosecutor seeks grand jury

The first call from the Florida couple’s landline came nearly 24 hours after their condo building collapsed into a burning pile of rubble, leaving them among scores of people missing.

Unnerved by the name on caller ID, Arnie and Myriam Notkin’s granddaughter answered the ringing phone Thursday night. Only static came through the other end.

The family largely wrote off the strange call. The Notkins’ landline had sat next to their bed in apartment 302 of Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Seeing the devastation, it was hard to believe the couple could have survived the crash, said their grandson, Jake Samuelson.

A Washington Post examination of video and images from the deadly collapse of a high-rise apartment building outside Miami — along with interviews with structural engineers, a key witness and an investigator — deepens questions about whether existing damage to a deck in the pool area contributed to the disaster.

A resident told The Post that minutes before Champlain Towers South in Surfside came down, she noticed that a section of the pool deck and a street-level parking area had collapsed into the parking garage below. The husband of another resident has said that his wife, who has not been seen since the disaster, made a similar observation in a telephone call shortly before the collapse.

After searching a precarious pile of rubble for nearly six straight days, rescue workers have recovered and confirmed the 12th victim in last week’s Surfside condo collapse.

The response team, which has been working constantly in shifts, has not pulled someone from the debris alive since the hours immediately after the disaster, but officials say the search will continue, with 149 people still missing.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced the updated death toll at a Tuesday evening news briefing, and she cautioned that “these numbers are very fluid and they continue to change.”

Two days after authorities identified a Venezuelan couple as two of the 11 people who died after the Champlain Towers collapse, Venezuelan diplomats visited Surfside, Fla., to express their solidarity.

In a news conference Tuesday morning at the Surfside emergency command center, Carlos Vecchio, the Venezuelan ambassador to the United States, said he had visited the site of the collapse and witnessed the “continuous, permanent and dedicated” rescue efforts.

Vecchio was appointed by interim president Juan Guaidó, whose mandate is recognized by the U.S. government.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Tuesday she planned to ask a grand jury to look at the condo collapse in Surfside, Fla., and determine “what steps we can take to safeguard our residents without jeopardizing any scientific, public safety, or potential criminal investigations.”

Grand juries in Florida are able to look at criminal matters and explore issues of public policy, returning indictments as well as reports aimed at recommending changes to lawmakers.

In a statement Tuesday, Fernandez Rundle said she had spoken to members of a six-person team dispatched by the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology, and noted that any investigation from their end would take considerable time. If that group launches an investigation, its work typically takes more than two years to conclude.

The veteran engineer hired by the town of Surfside to investigate the building collapse began his on-site inspection Tuesday with a special focus on whether the condo’s still-standing portion is at risk of falling down.

Allyn Kilsheimer, president of KCE Structural Engineers, said in an interview that he will get a closer look at the part of the structure that did not collapse and try to determine whether wind of a certain speed could bring it down — hampering search efforts and endangering the lives of recovery workers.

The board president of Champlain Towers South told residents in May 2020 that several “budget surprises” — including coronavirus rules and an unexpected jump in insurance premiums — had strained finances as they prepared for this year’s 40-year inspection and certification, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

“There is no way for our current budget to absorb all these hits,” Jean Wodnicki wrote in a May 29, 2020, letter to property owners before going on to describe “the work our building needs so badly.” That included hallway renovations and 40-year renovations, which Wodnicki said would be combined into one project to “schedule work most cost-effectively and efficiently.”

The former Surfside building official who told residents their condominium building was “in very good shape” nearly three years before it collapsed has been put on leave from his current government position in nearby Doral, the city disclosed Tuesday.

Ross Prieto was Surfside’s building official in 2018, when an engineer warned in a report that there was “major structural damage” to a concrete slab below the pool deck, in the part of the building that would fall last week. A month later, Prieto told the condo association that the building was “in very good shape,” according to the meeting’s minutes.