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Recordings of panicked 911 calls related to the tragic Surfside collapse in the Champlain Towers South building came to light; victims of the disaster were frantic about the collapse: “the pool area started sinking,” one caller alerted.
At least 97 people died in the Surfside collapse and another dozen or so remain missing; although the cause of what happened is unknown, there had been warnings since 2018 of major structural damage.
Recordings of 911 calls show disbelief, panic, and confusion: “We have to get out. Hurry up, hurry up. There’s a big explosion,” said one caller.
“Oh my God, the whole building collapsed!” another caller told a Miami-Dade Police Department dispatcher who released the recordings from the night of the collapse.
One 911 caller said he saw what appeared to be a large depression near the pool, “I woke up because I was hearing some noise. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I looked out and saw the patio area was sinking. The pool area started sinking,” the caller said.
“There are many parts of the building that collapsed. The building just collapsed into a sinkhole. There will be many, many people dead,” she exclaimed.
Another woman caller said she was trapped near the building’s parking lot and needed help. “Can someone please help me out? If the building collapses, it will fall on my head.”
The release of the calls came Wednesday as a judge approved the sale of the waterfront property, with proceeds going to benefit victims of the deadly disaster.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo