2021 Surfside condo collapse that killed 98 people started in pool deck, NIST says

The deadly 2021 partial collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, likely began in the condominium's pool deck rather than the residential tower, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The failure killed 98 people and is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which presented new findings this week.

Cracks, water leaks noted before failure

The NIST reported that cracks in concrete slabs, a jammed gate and a sliding glass door that came off its frame were visible in the weeks before the collapse.

The day before the failure, witnesses saw water leaking from the garage ceiling in an area that had undergone repeated repairs.

Investigators said the pool deck and street-level parking deck began to fail at lea