New podcast on Surfside condo collapse seeks to answer what went wrong
A new 12-part investigative podcast from the Miami Herald and Treefort Media will look into the rise and fall of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, the harrowing search for survivors and the questions that still remain months after the tragedy.
Why did the condo tower fall? Who’s going to be held accountable? Could a tragedy like Surfside happen again, and if so, can anything be done to stop it?
These are some of the questions the podcast, “Collapse: Disaster in Surfside,” will seek to answer as it looks into the fatal early morning of June 24, 2021, in the seaside town of Surfside, near Miami Beach, where 98 people lost their lives in one of the worst building failures in U.S. history.
“Our collaboration with the Herald allowed us exclusive access to their incredible team of journalists pursuing this ongoing investigation,” said Treefort Media’s Lisa Ammerman, an executive producer on the podcast. “This story made headlines around the world, but it’s never been told from the inside out — until now.”
Said Paul Beban, the host and a series producer: “I think people are really going to get a sense of what it was like to make it out of that space, whether they are coming down from a high floor with someone who ran down with their entire family, or they’re escaping from the lobby.”
A look at ‘Collapse: Disaster in Surfside’
Through the course of 12 half-hour episodes, the podcast will use 911 calls, police body camera recordings, surveillance footage, and interviews with survivors, witnesses, first responders, journalists and experts. Listeners will be immersed in the history of Champlain Towers South, its collapse and the heart-wrenching aftermath.
“This podcast is testament to the power of local journalism, its impact and its ability to tell the stories that shape communities. The Miami Herald strives to meet its public service mission through storytelling in many formats,” said Monica Richardson, the Miami Herald’s executive editor and McClatchy’s Florida regional editor.
“I hope people will listen to this podcast and that it will evoke empathy and compassion along with a sense of why community matters,” Richardson said. “Surfside is the story of a community that was shaken by tragedy but also strengthened by it.”
The weekly podcast will stream on all platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon.
Some things the podcast will address:
▪ Champlain South was plagued by structural issues years before the ocean-facing portion of the residential tower pancaked into a two-story pile of unstable rubble while people were sleeping. Listeners will time-travel to the past to learn about the developers of the 1981 building and how its design flaws contributed to the collapse.
▪ Listeners will be taken through the treacherous search for the missing in the condo’s rubble — which required all eight of Florida’s urban search and rescue task force teams, plus teams from Israel and Mexico. They will also hear the private briefings families were given as crews dug a large trench to combat a “deep fire,” with K9s and robots aiding their search, amid mounting fears the remaining portion of the building would topple. (It was demolished on the Fourth of July ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa’s expected arrival.)
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▪ The American Red Cross, Operation Helping Hands, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, Catholic Charities and other organizations rushed to the area to assist families. Clergy from different faiths and mental health counselors were there to help people process their anguish. Beban said the podcast will examine how the tragedy affected mental health, including among first responders and journalists.
▪ Miami Herald reporters and editors, including Joey Flechas, the first Herald reporter to arrive to the collapsed site, Samantha Gross, Senior Editor Dave Wilson, and Rick Hirsch, the Herald’s managing editor at the time, will talk about what it was like covering a tragedy that affected so many in our community. Members of the forensic unit that worked on the story, including Sarah Blaskey, Aaron Leibowitz, Ben Conarck and Nicholas Nehamas, will dive into their Surfside investigation, which most recently produced “House of Cards,” an interactive that shows how decades of problems contributed to the collapse.
▪ The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency that investigated the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, is looking into why the Surfside condo fell and what changes need to be made to prevent a similar tragedy from happening in the future. The collapse spurred questions on building safety and discussions on whether condo regulations and rules need to change, all topics that the podcast will discuss.
How to listen
What: Collapse: Disaster in Surfside podcast
When and where: First episode airs soon. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 2:21 PM.
