5 Years After Surfside Collapse, the Emotional Toll Endures

SURFSIDE, Fla. — A torch was lit just after 1 a.m. Wednesday in remembrance of the 98 people killed when the Champlain Towers South condominium collapsed on June 24, 2021, marking five years since one of the largest structural failures in U.S. history. For survivors, the families of victims, and the first responders who worked the site for nearly a month, the emotional and psychological toll of the tragedy remains profound.

The Disaster That Changed a Community

At approximately 1:22 a.m. on June 24, 2021, two-thirds of the 12-story beachfront building in Surfside, Florida, crumbled into a heap of rubble. According to NPR, only three people were rescued alive from the debris. Five others escaped. The youngest victim was a 1-year-old infant; the oldest was a 92-year-old grandmother.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who led the government response, recalled arriving at the scene. “Arriving on the scene and surveying it is when you get that gut punch. Beyond belief,” she told NPR. “They call it pancaking, where the layers of the floors were all compressed and you could still see them.”

The Toll on First Responders

Approximately 2,200 responders worked the site for nearly a month, sleeping nearby in tents, trailers and a cruise ship offshore. Miami-Dade Fire Chief Ray Jadallah, who was assistant chief for operations at the time, said the personal nature of the disaster took a heavy toll.

“When it happens in your own backyard, it is a very different set of circumstances. It’s your hometown; it’s your family,” Jadallah told NPR. “It takes a toll on you mentally, physically, emotionally. We had, even within our own department, people that retired relatively early, even within weeks of the incident.”

Battalion Chief Brandon Webb, who leads Florida Task Force One — the department’s elite urban search and rescue team — described how the operation became deeply personal. “We got a list of people that we were looking for, where they were probably sleeping, what color their carpet was,” he recalled. “That made it very personal. They were looking basically for people that had become known to them. And I think that was particularly traumatic.”

Survivors: Grief, PTSD and Resilience

For those who survived the collapse, the past five years have been a journey of healing — and, for some, of advocacy.

Deven Gonzalez, who was rescued from the rubble and lost her father in the collapse, remains close with the first responders who saved her. “We still talk on a regular basis. They were there for my going away party to go to college. They were there for my high school volleyball games,” she told CBS Miami. “They have honestly become a second part of my family.”

Jonah Handler was 15 years old when he became one of only three people rescued from the rubble. His mother, Stacie Dawn Fang, was killed. His father, Neil Handler, described the long recovery from severe PTSD. “His PTSD was through the roof. It was something that as a parent, I never felt so powerless in my life,” Handler told NPR.

Handler left his business selling luxury cars and, with Jonah, started a non-profit called the Phoenix Life Project to help victims and first responders recover from PTSD. Jonah, now a college student and pitcher on his university’s baseball team, has found relief through neurofeedback treatment. “I’m blessed that he’s even walking, let alone throwing a baseball,” Handler said.

The Search for Accountability

Martin Langesfeld lost his sister Nicky, 26, and her husband Luis Sadovnic, 28, in the collapse. The newlyweds had lived in the beachfront condo for only a few months. “Losing them in a way like this, that wasn’t a regular life trajectory or accident,” Langesfeld told NPR. “We’re not asking enough questions. Ninety-eight people were killed in a building collapse. That doesn’t just happen.”

A year after the disaster, a $1.2 billion class action settlement was approved, involving more than 30 defendants. But no one has been held criminally responsible. “No one’s been arrested,” Langesfeld said. “How many more lives will it take for accountability?”

NIST Findings: What Caused the Collapse?

Just days before the fifth anniversary, the National Institute of Standards and Technology released its technical findings on the cause of the collapse. According to NIST, the collapse began in early June 2021 when two connections between garage columns and the pool deck failed. Over three weeks, cracks grew and loads redistributed until adjacent connections — not strong enough to bear the load — failed catastrophically on June 24.

“When building structures are designed and built to required codes and standards, they have margins against failure, meaning they should be able to support much more load than they are expected to bear,” said Judith Mitrani-Reiser, co-leader of the federal investigation. “In the case of Champlain Towers South, however, these margins against failure were too narrow from the start.”

Investigators identified “severe and widespread deviations in the building’s original structural design from the codes and standards of the day” combined with deviations in construction from the design drawings. A final report with recommendations for changes to standards, codes and practices is expected later in 2026.

Legislative Changes and New Tensions

Florida responded to the disaster by passing more stringent regulations, including mandates for structural inspections and requirements for condo associations to maintain minimum reserve funding for structural upkeep. But the reforms have created new tensions. Donna DiMaggio Berger, a Ft. Lauderdale attorney specializing in condominium law, told NPR that “the Florida legislature pushed the burden to create safe housing stock in Florida onto the people who are least able to bear it, which is the Florida consumer.”

Mayor Levine Cava warned of a growing problem she calls “condo vultures” — investors forcing long-time residents to sell as costs rise. “There’s tremendous pressure that people can’t afford these things and so they’re forced to sell,” she said. “We call it ‘condo vultures,’ and it is at our peril.”

A Memorial Yet to Be Built

As the site is prepared for The Delmore, a luxury condominium by Dubai-based Damac Properties with units starting at $15 million, families continue to push for a permanent memorial. No such memorial has been established at the site, and no buyers have been secured in the pre-sale phase.

Some impacted by the disaster have chosen to focus on moving forward rather than dwelling on the tragedy. “Life has gone on,” Neil Handler said. “I see a lot of people stuck in the morbid reflection of that day, and I refuse to let my son or myself go down that road or stay stuck there.”

For others, the fight for answers continues. Local prosecutors say any criminal probe will wait until NIST issues its final report. Until then, the families of the 98 victims — and the community that mourns them — carry the weight of a tragedy that, five years later, still feels like yesterday.