I have a question about the Miami condo collapse

[StarfishSaver]

I know nothing about structural engineering or building collapses, so I'm hoping any experts here can help me with something I'm wondering about ...

Why haven't more bodies been found at this point? It seems to me that a building of this size would have had lots of occupants on the side of the building that collapsed, but they don't seem to be finding many bodies, despite the number of unaccounted for people.

Is it that in a building collapse of this type, casualties are very far under the rubble and there's no way to get to them quickly? Or perhaps many of those condos were actually unoccupied? Or could there be a other explanation?

(I certainly don't want there to be a lot of casualties and I'm hoping that maybe they're weren't as many people in the building as we think) ...

It just doesn't make sense to me - But as with most things that don't make sense to me, I assume there's likely a very reasonable explanation that I just don't know yet.

Thanks in advance for any expert assessment.

[msongs]

1. its a collection of huge slabs, not a pile of loose pieces, so they picking around the edges IMO nt

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Have you seen the video of it actually falling ... there is one ...

It's not fun to watch but when I saw it, I felt like it kinda (morbidly) answers your question.

In short, that mess is going to take a while to dig out.

[WVreaper]

3. Rule Number 1

For rescue personnel to enter the site, it must be safe for them to do so.

[StarfishSaver]

5. I understand that. But rescuers have been on the site, searching for days

I heard this morning that the search dogs are getting depressed because they're not finding anyone.

So it's not that they haven't started searching. I'm wondering why the searches aren't finding anyone.

[Blanks]

4. They mentioned in the press that...

A lot of the people who lived there are ‘snow birds’. With any luck, as many of the people who lived there as possible were in their ‘cool place’ for the hot summer months.

They’ve also mentioned how difficult it is to get in there out of concern for making it collapse even worse and that’s one of the reasons it’s going so slow.

It does seem to be going very slowly.

[StarfishSaver]

6. I hope that's the case

But it doesn't seem to me the search is all that slow - although it may be - but that despite all of the searching, they're not finding anyone.

[Blanks]

13. As I watch the people climb around on top of the debris...

The pile doesn’t seem to be getting smaller. They can’t take backhoes in there for fear of crushing anything below, so they need to pull debris out of there with a crane and stack it off to the side in order to locate people who would’ve been on the lower floors.

It seems like the search is going pretty slow to me.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Four Canadians are missing. . . . nt

[relayerbob]

7. Perhaps out of respect, they aren't giving numbers yet

[StarfishSaver]

8. Perhaps. So sad.

Those poor people and their families.

[Treefrog]

21. My thought too.

They’re probably trying to figure out the best way to back the press and everyone up a bit. It’s starting to look more and more grim.

I’m still hoping that many units were empty since it’s summertime.

[happybird]

9. An official said in an interview

that there was an intense fire and they were having/had difficulty putting it out.
They are asking families of the missing for DNA samples.
Those two things make me think there is not much left of the bodies to be found. It’s so sad.

[StarfishSaver]

10. How awful

I hadn't thought of that. I was thinking there were actual bodies under the rubble, but it might be more like the World Trade Center.

Unspeakably horrible.

[relayerbob]

23. That occured to me also

[bullwinkle428]

24. I thought of the WTC collapses, and the fact that there was very little left

in terms of remains.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. For At Least Some Floors...

...the video looks like the floors above fell straight onto the next floor.
If what I think I see actually happened, many people would have been smashed to death.
The remains would still be a splatter (sorry for that image) sandwiched between several tons of concrete.
For a couple days, their focus was probably on finding survivors. Now cones the more grisly task of collecting remains.
Just a thought.

[Hekate]

14. What boggles my mind is that yes, the building pancaked, as we have seen in major earthquakes ...

…but it appeared to fall into such small pieces, instant rubble. I would have expected some big pieces of slab, the kind that either crushes instantly or alternatively leaves air pockets.

The whole thing is just ghastly.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. I Haven't Seen...

...any detailed pix of the aftermath. Only the footage of the collapse.
So, I was unaware that few major slabs remained.
But even if that were the case, those victims would already be in a gelatinous state stuck to the pieces.
Still makes it very hard to search & recover.

[Hekate]

19. The film isn't that good, tbh. nt

[KG]

12. gonna be awhile digging thru that pile of rubble. maybe weeks.

[Srkdqltr]

15. It only happened yesterday. Just a day and a half. Jeez

[StarfishSaver]

16. It happened two and a half days ago.

But, of course, if you don't like my question, you were free to ignore it rather than expend the effort inserting yourself in the thread to provide a non-answer.

[Srkdqltr]

18. Of course that makes all the difference. This all will take a long time. They didn't find a

Lot of bodies after 911. Bodies get crushed horribly. Parts get scattered. This is real not an episode of a TV show to be done after the last commercial.
I'll insert myself where ever.

[doc03]

20. For each piece of concrete removed there would be

steel rebar that would have to be cut first. That would be time consuming. Never the less it does seem to be a very slow process.

[lindysalsagal]

25. I wasn't keeping up: Why did the building collapse?

[malaise]

26. I just finished watching Sunday Morning in Florida on Local 10

I only heard the tail end of the program - not verbatim - this is the single biggest loss of life in South Florida history.

Those people were flattened like pancakes. It is going to be very hard to identify those bodies.
As it is they are finding human remains in the rubble.