Rescue workers pulled the bodies of two children, aged four and ten, from the rubble of the collapsed Champlain Towers South complex, raising the death toll to 18 confirmed, USA Today reports. The number of missing people stands at 145.
The casualty update comes as the Washington Post reports that five of the seven members of the condo board responsible for managing the complex resigned in 2019 because of infighting regarding the sluggish scheduling of repairs recommended by an engineering firm.
“We work for months to go in one direction and at the very last minute objections are raised that should have been discussed and resolved right in the beginning,” Anette Goldstein wrote in a September 2019 resignation letter. “This pattern has repeated itself over and over, ego battles, undermining the roles of fellow board members, circulation of gossip and mistruths. I am not presenting a very pretty picture of the functioning of our board and many before us, but it describes a board that works very hard but cannot for the reasons above accomplish the goals we set out to accomplish.”
The board argued over the cost of the repairs, which totalled an estimated $15 millions of work, as well as the schedule for them. Residents pushed back on the need for such extensive and expensive repairs.
“The question is, ‘Why did it take three years to get this point?’ ” Max Friedman, a former board member who left the board before the 2018 report, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “It took a lot of time to get the ball rolling, and of course there was sticker shock. Nobody truly believed the building was in imminent danger.”