‘The Fear Is Very Real.’ The Surfside Collapse Is Renewing Focus on Climate Change Risks

In the days since the deadly collapse of a condo tower in Surfside, Florida, residents of Miami’s waterfront buildings have found themselves looking up more often. Cracks in garage ceilings, corroded rebar in concrete columns, and signs of saltwater seepage after bad weather—not uncommon features of older seaside structures in this part of the state—are being seen with new and wary eyes. They are being documented on social media, spread rapidly on group chats and shared in unnerved emails to building managers and inspectors. “Sometimes it takes the exposure from a tragedy for people to really pay attention!” one person commented on an Instagram video posted on Tuesday that’s been viewed more than 620,000 times, which showed a long crack in the ceiling garage of an apartment building in Key Biscayne, an island off the coast of Miami. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The sudden collapse of a 13-story condo tower on June 24 just north of Miami Beach has left at least 18 people dead and more than 140 people still missing as of Thursday. The tragedy has shaken Miami residents who have grown used to natural disasters and regular warnings that they are in the crosshairs of climate change as rising sea levels threaten the city’s coastline. But though it’s not yet clear what factors caused the building to crumble, experts say the fresh sense of panic that the Surfside disaster has set off could have ripple effects that shake ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news