‘My Aching Heart Is Shattered Into Little Pieces’
A year ago, Champlain Towers South collapsed in Surfside, Fla. The lives of those who lost loved ones and homes have never been the same.
SURFSIDE, Fla. — A year later, the shock of the collapse of Champlain Towers South has not worn off. Not for the people whose loved ones died crushed in the rubble. Not for their neighbors who made it out alive but dispossessed.
Not for the small community of Surfside, forever linked to a tragedy that killed 98 people. Or for South Florida more broadly, where it is a little more difficult to live carefree under the sunshine and by the waves knowing that a 13-story building crashed down with little warning in the middle of the night.
Champlain Towers and its 135 condo units had been around for 40 years. Many longtime Miamians knew someone who lived there. For more than a month, residents watched as rescuers failed to find survivors beyond three people saved in the first hours after the collapse on June 24, 2021. The demolition of the rest of the building a few days later left a gaping hole along Collins Avenue, the bright blue sky a constant reminder of the remains never recovered. Heirlooms destroyed. Dreams lost.
“My aching heart is shattered into little pieces and beyond repair,” Eileen Rosenberg, whose daughter, Malky Weisz, was killed, said in court on Thursday.
There are few answers. A federal investigation into what caused the collapse will take years.
Survivors describe their lives as cleaved by that terrible day. Restful sleep is elusive. Rolling thunderstorms, which boom like the falling building, are frightening.
Hard feelings emerged between those who were mourning dead family members and those who were not. For anyone to recover money to rebuild their lives, the land had to be put up for sale, quickly, with no plans for a memorial to the victims. Getting state lawmakers to require more building inspections took months of lobbying.
As part of financial settlements hashed out in court, those who lost condo units will split $96 million. Those who lost loved ones will split about $1 billion.
They have persevered. Discovered new strengths. Reprioritized their lives.
These are their stories, in their own words.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“People are amazed by our resiliency, and they equate that to this being easy. It’s not.”
Angela Gonzalez
‘I have struggled with my faith’
Angela Gonzalez, 45, yelled for her daughter Deven, 17, a high school volleyball player, when the building crumbled. The floor caved and they fell several stories. Both suffered serious injuries. The remains of Edgar Gonzalez, their husband and father, were found two weeks later.
DEVEN: Any moment I’ll wake up, and it’ll be how it was before. But it’s obviously not.
I kept my honors and Advanced Placement classes. But that wasn’t the best idea, because I had a third surgery in November. I missed a month of school. I had to learn to walk again. It really sucks. I hated it.
Simple tasks are like climbing Everest. The biggest one that we struggle with is dinner. My dad usually made dinner, so whenever nighttime rolls around, we’re like, “Oh, we didn’t take anything out to defrost.”
I have struggled with my faith. Some people say you’re a bad person or a sinner if you’re mad at God. Well, then I’m a sinner, because I am really angry that he let this happen. But my dad would have told me: He has a plan, and I might not know what it is right now, but there is one.
On days when we’re doing fine, I’ll forget that my dad’s passed away. Or I’ll think that he’s working long hours, and he’s going to come home. But he doesn’t. Then you feel guilty, like you’re doing good without him. If you don’t miss him, it’s terrible. But if you miss him, it’s terrible, too.
ANGELA: People are amazed by our resiliency, and they equate that to this being easy. It’s not. It’s so much easier to not come out of our bedroom. But we choose to face this every day.
If Edgar had made it, he would have been amazing at loving us through this. He would have been a cheerleader.
My body remembers. Three weeks after I left the hospital, I pulled myself up from bed a certain way, and my body went into complete shock. I asked Deven, “Did I sit up like that to look for you in the rubble?” She said yes.
I was folding new towels and remembered someone had bought us his-and-her towels on our wedding day. Edgar still had his. He would get so annoyed if anybody else used it. I would love to have that towel today.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“I had nightmares afterward.”
Officer Craig Lovellette
‘You take yourself to dark places’
Officer Craig Lovellette, 47, was one of the first Surfside police officers at the collapse site. Officer Joe Matthews, 47, was filling in as dispatcher. Capt. John Healy, 58, raced to the building.
OFFICER LOVELLETTE: We couldn’t see. Fiberglass got in our eyes. We thought a balcony had collapsed. Then I went around the back. I called the captain and woke him up.
Family members wanted to run in. We didn’t know if the rest of the building was going to come down. Did somebody detonate a bomb? Was it construction?
You take yourself to dark places. To die inside your home — I had nightmares afterward. I would think of random things collapsing, like bridges.
We haven’t been able to get our bearings.
OFFICER MATTHEWS:
When it happened, the lights flickered in the whole town. We started getting calls: “Is there an earthquake?” “There’s a hole in the building.” Like, what are you talking about? Calls were coming in from news organizations all over the world.
I remember Michael Stratton calling and asking for his wife, Cassie. Just over and over. Call back. Call back. Call back. She had been out on the balcony talking to him when the building collapsed. That was rough. I finally met him at a vigil. It’s one of those events I will remember forever.
CAPTAIN HEALY: I keep my uniform ready all the time. So I was out the door pretty quick.
I looked up and saw where a friend lived. I counted the floors. I called my wife and said, “I think they’re gone.”
I went to the first funeral, for other friends of ours. There were only three caskets, because two little girls were in one together.
Nobody knew who the heck we were. Now, you say, I live in Surfside — “Isn’t that where the building collapsed?”
As law enforcement, you’re expected not to fall apart. We can go to all the training in the world, but there are things that are going to impact us, and we don’t always have the ability to control them.
Sometime I put this job and this career ahead of my family. I have tried to change that.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“My only regret is not having found a live person.”
Capt. Eddy Alarcón
‘A newfound appreciation for everything’
Capt. Eddy Alarcón, 52, arrived the day after the collapse. It was his first search-and-rescue deployment in more than 25 years with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department.
I had all the training. But nobody’s had this kind of experience except for the guys that went to 9/11. I dream about it. I can picture the faces. The things that we witnessed.
I was there for three weeks. Everybody was so physically and mentally exhausted. I came back with pains in places I didn’t know existed.
My only regret is not having found a live person. We train to save people.
I’m particularly sensitive now. You have a newfound appreciation for everything. My daughter started a butterfly garden. I’m so proud of her.
I play the guitar in a band, Fire Brigade, that’s all firefighters. I look to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when I’m feeling low, and he always brings me back. My therapy is being able to talk to my wife and kid. I don’t bottle anything up.
Now I’m in charge of recruit training. For the first couple of months after the incident, I couldn’t deal with operations. I’m taking a medical specialist class so that I can help our guys when they get injured.
My squad, we were thick as thieves. When it was all over, we went our separate ways and didn’t talk about it. I miss those guys.
I’d do it again. It would probably hurt me just as bad. But that’s what we do.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“I have not been back to the beach.”
Deborah Soriano
‘There was nothing left’
Deborah Soriano, 59, is a clothing designer who lived on the 11th floor and escaped down the stairs.
Nothing compares to losing a child. So I put things into perspective. I’m very lucky.
The fact that we survived made a lot of people angry: “You guys are alive. You don’t need anything else.” But it’s not true. We all had a life.
For five months I was living at a friend’s house. I couldn’t bring myself to rent something. Now I found a place. It’s on the fifth floor. I picked a building that is not tall. Prices are crazy.
They found none of our valuables. Just paper clips. Safety pins. Can openers. But not one piece of jewelry. One Ziploc bag had a ticket from the dry cleaners.
I don’t have pictures of my family. When everybody finds pictures, they send them to me. I go to Walgreens and print two of each; I leave one at home and bring the other one to the office.
I thought there had been a terrorist attack. Then I thought my neighbor had left the oven on. I opened my door and there was nothing left. Nobody left. It was just me.
Everyone said, “You have to go to therapy.” I probably do. But I felt like I had to do stuff. I was left without documents.
It’s sad, to end up like this. I have not been back to the beach. My niece came from Brazil and brought me a bikini. Maybe I’ll go back now.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“What wouldn’t you trade for getting a loved one back?”
Bruce Greer
‘I know I could help these people’
Bruce W. Greer, 74, mediated the financial settlement between families of the victims and the insurance companies, developers of an adjacent building and other defendants.
The first thing I said was: “It’s never going to be OK. You’re going to be very unhappy when this is over.” I told them, I’ve lived through this: When I was 14, my dad died five feet away from me. It’s still the most important day of my life.
I’d spent 60 years trying to avoid those thoughts. When the judge called asking me to handle the case, I said, “No, I can’t.” I didn’t tell him why. Then I thought, I know I could help these people.
There were hundreds of Zoom calls. I’m like a legal counselor.
I asked the plaintiffs to show me their case. Some of the photos were so graphic I had to turn my camera off so they wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes.
I’ve been dreaming about the people who died. But I was also concerned about all of the accused. We don’t know why the building fell down, so everybody becomes a suspect.
When I was in high school, I wanted to be the guy to save Richard Kimble, the man who was wrongfully accused in “The Fugitive.” In this case, there were going to be a lot of people accused who weren’t guilty. In the end, no one took responsibility.
The pot was expected to be about $300 million, but the result was over $1 billion. There’s not enough money; it’s just society’s way of giving you back something. Because what wouldn’t you trade for getting a loved one back?
This was my first case in more than 30 years. I retired when I was 42, the same age my dad was when he died. It’s probably not a coincidence.
I did the case pro bono. I thought, if we can get this all over for everyone within a year, we would demonstrate how the system can work.
Rose Marie Cromwell for The New York Times“Everywhere I go, I have a ghost in my head.”
Pablo Langesfeld
‘We haven’t been able to grieve’
Nicky Langesfeld died in the collapse along with her husband, Luis Sadovnic. Her brother, Martin Langesfeld, 24, and father, Pablo Langesfeld, 56, spent much of the year pushing for condominium reforms in the State Capitol.
MARTIN: No family member, after such a catastrophe, should need to beg and push their state leaders to make a difference.
This is our full-time job. We haven’t been able to grieve. I want to work with the developer and build a memorial on the site. We’re asking for less than half an acre. We haven’t been able to contact him. I’ve tried many times.
Full bodies were not recovered. We got a call a few weeks ago from the medical examiner. They’re still finding remains.
Before this, I went skydiving 10 to 20 times a month. I had to change my hobbies: I need to not give my mother a heart attack.
I went to South Africa to disconnect. I had to come back earlier because of everything going on. My parents went on a cruise, and they had to be on Zoom calls.
They renamed a street for my sister. We did an underwater memorial. She loved the ocean.
We had sibling fights. I never thought I would miss those.
PABLO: The last time I saw Nicky was on Father’s Day. Since she was 5, she wanted to be an attorney. She wanted justice.
Everywhere I go, I have a ghost in my head. Me and my wife, we cry every day. I didn’t get to say goodbye.
We don’t want to give the wrong impression that because of the settlement, we will stop pushing for answers. Somebody needs to be held accountable.
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