至少18人都死了在南部一栋12层的住宅楼部分倒塌后，还有145人下落不明佛罗里达州官员们说，上周美国迈阿密戴德县。

周三，大规模搜救行动已进入第七天，搜救人员仍在继续仔细梳理搜寻成堆的碎片，希望能找到幸存者。部分崩溃发生当地时间周四凌晨1点15分左右，位于迈阿密海滩以北约6英里的海滨小镇Surfside的尚普兰塔南公寓。根据迈阿密戴德消防救援助理局长雷德·贾达拉的说法，海滨综合建筑的136个单元中约有55个被摧毁。

迈阿密戴德县市长丹妮尔·莱文·卡瓦周三晚上说，从废墟中拖出的最新尸体是两个孩子，一个4岁，一个10岁。

“对于任何生命损失，尤其是考虑到这一事件的意外、前所未有的性质，都是一场悲剧。但我们孩子的损失太大了，无法承受，”市长说。“我们现在再次团结在一起，面对这个可怕的新发现，即儿童也是受害者。”

据莱文·卡瓦(Levine Cava)称，到目前为止，灾难发生时住在公寓里或住在公寓里的139人已经得到解释，他们是安全的。他强调，这些数字“非常不稳定”，而且“继续变化”。官员们此前将死者人数包括在内，但现在将数字分开。

周三早些时候，莱文·卡瓦在Surfside的一次新闻发布会上说:“我们的团队像每天晚上一样，彻夜工作，在废墟中取得进展。”“全世界都在看。”

我们不会丢下任何人

贾达拉说，救援人员上周清理了剩余的建筑，此后所有资源都转移到了废墟上。数百名急救人员和志愿者夜以继日地工作，寻找残骸中的幸存者或人类遗骸。然而，恶劣的天气条件——以及其他挑战——周期性地迫使他们暂停努力。

“这很艰难，”迈阿密戴德消防救援负责人艾伦·科明斯基在周三上午的新闻发布会上说，然后指出工作人员“希望有一个积极的结果”。

“情绪很高，”他补充道。“我们还在前进。”

冲浪区市长查尔斯·伯克特告诉记者，一些家庭质疑救援工作何时从搜救过渡到恢复。但他表示，官员和救援人员之间有一个强烈的共识:“我们不会丢下任何人。”

“这将持续到我们把所有人都救出去，”伯克特在周三上午的新闻发布会上说。

根据莱文·卡瓦的说法，工作人员已经在废墟中挖了一条巨大的壕沟来帮助他们的搜索。据科明斯基称，截至周二下午，他们已经转移了300多万磅混凝土，超过850立方英尺。

与此同时，根据佛罗里达州应急管理部门主任凯文·格思里的说法，自卸卡车已经开始将碎片转移到另一个地点。他告诉记者，救援人员拥有他们需要的“所有资源”。

贾达拉说，工作人员还没有到达废墟的底部，但是里面的摄像头显示出空隙和气穴，人们可能会被困在那里。

迈阿密戴德消防救援队负责搜救工作的副事故指挥官安迪·阿尔瓦雷斯(Andy Alvarez)表示，80多名救援人员每次轮班工作12小时，他们在废墟上倾听声音，并试图通过隧道穿过废墟。阿尔瓦雷斯周一在接受美国广播公司新闻采访时表示，这一过程既“疯狂”又艰难。

阿尔瓦雷斯说，由于高温、潮湿和下雨，救援人员的条件“很差”，“不理想”，但努力仍在继续。阿尔瓦雷斯说，工作人员正在使用各种设备和技术，包括可以检测受害者的地下声纳系统，以及可以从桩上移除巨大混凝土板的起重机卡车。

乔·史奇普/路透社

紧急救援人员在部分倒塌的住宅现场进行搜救工作...

该网站也被证明对救援人员是危险的。莱文·卡瓦(Levine Cava)告诉记者，根据伯克特的说法，周二，由于碎片掉落，一个区域必须用绳子隔开，工作人员不再进入剩余的结构，因为它被认为是不稳定的。

“我们正在用尽这里的每一条途径，但这是一个非常非常危险的情况，我不能轻描淡写，”科明斯基在周三上午的新闻发布会上说。

这是非飓风事件史上最大规模的特遣部队资源部署。但据佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯(Ron DeSantis)称，随着大西洋飓风季节的临近，官员们正在监测该地区的风暴，以防其他地方需要部署到冲浪场地的一些资源。

“这是一个赛季，你必须做好准备，”德桑蒂斯在周三的新闻发布会上说。

以色列国防军

以色列国防军搜救队成员在尚普兰托的废墟中工作...

一些第一反应者是迈阿密戴德消防救援队的城市搜索和救援小组佛罗里达特遣队-1的成员，该小组是联邦应急管理局国家城市搜索和救援反应系统的一部分，已被部署到全国和世界各地的灾难中。来自以色列和墨西哥的搜救队也加入了冲浪运动。

尽管官员们继续表示希望能找到更多活着的人，但自该建筑部分倒塌的那天早上以来，在废墟中没有发现幸存者。然而，据科明斯基说，尸体已经在整个现场被发现，工作人员已经将这些尸体分类到网格中。消防队长告诉记者，带着经过特殊训练的狗的救援人员仍在废墟中“不断”“寻找生命”。

官员们要求失踪人员的家人提供他们所爱的人的DNA样本和独特特征，如纹身和伤疤，以帮助识别在残骸中发现的人。据莱文·卡瓦(Levine Cava)称，侦探们也在对那些已被记录和未被记录的人的名单进行审计。

“核实名单上每个名字的过程非常缓慢和有条不紊，”迈阿密戴德县市长在周三上午的新闻发布会上说。“有时我们会收到不完整的报告，我们没有完整的信息，很难联系到提供报告的人。”

根据白宫的一份声明，乔·拜登总统和第一夫人吉尔·拜登将于周四前往冲浪胜地。上周，总统批准了佛罗里达州的紧急声明，并下令联邦援助，以补充州和地方在部分建筑倒塌后的应对努力。

调查“需要很长时间”

一座经受了几十年飓风的建筑部分倒塌的原因仍然未知。迈阿密戴德警察局正在领导对此事件的调查。

莱文·卡瓦周三说:“我们正在尽一切可能——然后是一些——人道的努力来度过这场悲剧，我们正在共同努力。”。

联邦机构国家标准与技术研究所周三宣布，已启动其国家建筑安全团队调查倒塌事件。

调查911后世贸中心大楼倒塌的小型机构的主任詹姆斯·奥尔特霍夫博士在周三晚上的新闻发布会上说，这项调查将是“事实调查，而不是找茬”，可能需要数年时间。

奥尔特霍夫说:“这需要时间，可能需要几年，但在我们确定这场悲剧的可能原因之前，我们不会停止。”。

迈阿密戴德县市长上周五告诉美国广播公司新闻，到目前为止没有证据表明存在违规行为，但“不排除任何可能性”。

迈阿密戴德州检察官凯瑟琳·费尔南德斯·朗德尔说，她计划“要求我们的大陪审团考虑我们可以采取什么措施来保护我们的居民，而不危及任何科学、公共安全或潜在的刑事调查。”

朗德尔在周二的一份声明中说:“我个人与国家标准与技术研究所的工程师交谈后知道，他们的调查将需要很长时间来确定这座建筑是如何以及为什么倒塌的。”“然而，这是一个对公众极其重要的问题，作为一名被选为保护这个社区安全的州检察官，我不会等待。”

据Surfside官员称，建于20世纪80年代的尚普兰南塔已进行了40年的重新认证，并一直在进行屋顶工程。

该协会的律师肯尼斯·德克托(Kenneth Direktor)表示，部分倒塌发生在尚普兰塔南公寓协会正准备启动一个新的建设项目进行更新的时候。德克托上周四告诉美国广播公司新闻，该建筑已经通过了广泛的检查，施工计划已经提交给镇上，但唯一已经开始的工作是在屋顶上。

德克托指出，他没有被警告该建筑的任何结构问题或建筑用地。他说，该建筑群受到了水的破坏，但这在海滨地区很常见，不会导致部分坍塌。

佛罗里达州国际大学迈阿密环境研究所的教授西蒙·沃登斯基(Shimon Wdowinski)在2020年进行的一项研究发现，从1993年到1999年，尚普兰塔南公寓所在的地区有地面沉降的迹象。但根据分析天基雷达数据的Wdowinski的说法，下沉，或土地的逐渐下沉，可能不会自己导致建筑物倒塌。

上周五，莱文·卡瓦告诉美国广播公司新闻，迈阿密戴德县的官员知道这项研究，并正在“调查”。

记录显示结构损坏，对附近建筑的担忧

2018年10月的结构性实地调查报告，其中包括数百页的公共文件放周日晚些时候，该镇表示，公寓游泳池甲板和入口车道下方的防水系统出现故障，导致“这些区域下方的混凝土结构板出现重大结构损坏”《纽约时报》首先报道了这一消息。

在2018年11月的一封也是由该镇发布的电子邮件中，冲浪场建筑官员罗斯·彼尔托告诉当时的镇经理，他已经会见了尚普兰塔南的居民，“一切都很顺利。”

“房间里每个人的反应都非常积极，”彼尔托在邮件中写道。“他们四十年重新认证过程中的所有主要问题都得到了解决。这座特殊的建筑在2021年之前不会迎来它的40年，但是他们已经决定尽早开始这个过程，我衷心赞同这个过程，并希望这一趋势能在其他房产中流行起来。”

苏珊娜·阿尔瓦雷斯(Susanna Alvarez)周日告诉美国广播公司新闻，彼尔托在2018年的会议上表示，该公寓“状况不错”——这一观点似乎与五周前撰写的结构性实地调查报告相冲突。

美国广播公司新闻获得了2018年11月尚普兰塔南公寓协会会议纪要的副本，其中指出，彼尔托已经审查了结构现场调查报告，“看来该建筑的形状非常好。”NPR是第一个报道这个消息的人。

彼尔托没有回应美国广播公司新闻部的多次置评请求。他不再受雇于冲浪城。根据该市周二的一份声明，他已被安排“休假”，不再担任附近多拉尔的建筑检查员一职。

当周一被问及彼尔托是否在2018年的会议上误导了居民时，冲浪城的市长告诉美国广播公司新闻:“我们必须找到答案。”

谷歌街景/盖蒂图像

谷歌街景图片中的12层公寓大楼在倒塌前、倒塌后和6月2日..

与此同时，冲浪场的官员和工程师们担心，最近附近一栋住宅楼的建设可能导致尚普兰塔南的不稳定，据一位专家称，这可能是“压垮骆驼的稻草”。

“邻近建筑的建造肯定会影响环境，尤其是现有建筑的地基，”本·斯查费，结构工程学教授，约翰·霍普金斯大学拉尔夫·奥康纳可持续能源研究所所长，周二告诉美国广播公司新闻。“尚普兰塔肯定已经存在严重的缺陷或损坏，但就突发事件而言，邻近的新建筑可能是‘压垮骆驼的稻草’。”

据当时的媒体报道，建设始于2015年，当时南佛罗里达开发公司Terra开始在南尚普兰塔(Champlain Towers South)街对面的迈阿密海滩(Miami Beach)建造一栋18层的豪华公寓——87公园。根据该镇公布的记录，该项目给居民带来了如此喧闹的声音，以至于尚普兰塔南公寓协会的董事会成员马拉·乔埃拉(Mara Chouela)在2019年1月联系了冲浪场的官员。

“我们担心冲浪区旁边的建筑太靠近了，”乔埃拉在电子邮件中写道。“柯林斯和87号公路上的terra项目挖得离我们的物业太近，我们对我们的建筑结构感到担忧。我们只是想知道是否有任何旅游官员可以过来检查一下。”

昌丹·卡纳/法新社通过盖蒂图像

人们参观了建筑倒塌受害者的临时纪念碑，就在事故现场附近...

乔埃拉收到了一封来自彼尔托的电子邮件，说:“没有什么需要我检查的。”

彼尔托补充说:“最好的办法是派人监控围栏、游泳池和邻近区域的损坏情况，或者雇佣一名顾问来监控这些区域，因为它们离建筑最近。”。

冲浪专员埃利安娜·萨尔扎尔周二告诉美国广播公司新闻，彼尔托对乔埃拉的回应反映了一个对工作“太满意”的人的“懒惰”。

“居民应该有一个地方去投诉，”萨尔扎尔说。“他们应该受到严肃对待。”

“这里发生的事情给每个小镇和每个政府敲响了警钟，”她补充说。

林恩·斯莱德基/美联社

一艘佛罗里达鱼类和野生动物保护执法船在海滨巡逻作为搜索..

据镇上发布的文件显示，几个月来，居民和董事会成员继续抱怨隔壁的项目，主要是聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料和建筑工地的灰尘，最终落在尚普兰塔南游泳池甲板和广场上。

8701柯林斯发展有限责任公司(8701 Collins Development LLC)是Terra和参与该项目的其他开发商成立的合资企业，该公司的发言人周三在一份声明中告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，他们“有信心87公园的建设不会导致或促成2021年6月24日在冲浪场发生的坍塌”。

迈阿密戴德县委员会主席何塞·佩佩·迪亚兹周二告诉美国广播公司新闻，他不会猜测邻近的建筑在部分坍塌中起了什么作用，但表示官员将对此进行调查。

针对尚普兰塔南公寓协会的诉讼已经代表居民提起，声称部分倒塌是可以避免的，该协会知道或应该知道结构损坏。

尚普兰塔南公寓协会的发言人说，他们不能对悬而未决的诉讼发表评论，但他们“在这段困难时期，重点仍然是照顾我们的朋友和邻居。”

这位发言人在周一的一份声明中告诉美国广播公司新闻，“我们继续与城市、州和地方官员合作，努力寻找和恢复，并了解这场悲剧的原因。”“我们对所有紧急救援人员——专业人员和志愿者——的不懈努力深表感谢。”

周三，两家律师事务所宣布，他们已提起诉讼和紧急动议，要求允许受影响家庭的代表在现场观察，并允许使用无人机记录证据。

“这些家庭不知道这是否被记录在案，因为他们一层一层地从崩溃中剥离出来，不知道这些证据会发生什么，他们应该在这个过程中有发言权和作用，”与摩根律师事务所一起提交文件的Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky的罗伯特·蒙盖鲁齐(Robert Mongeluzzi)在新闻发布会上说。

他补充说:“我们相信，我们可以给这些家庭一个声音和一双眼睛，而不会损害在那里的搜索和救援小组的关键工作，也不会影响在那里的所有调查机构。”

这些文件是代表哈里·罗森博格律师说，尚普兰塔南的一名居民在坍塌中失踪，他和他的女儿和女婿一起失踪。

“他们不希望这是关于他们的，”蒙格卢茨说。“他们只是提出了这一点，这样我们就可以代表所有的家庭，所有的受害者提出这一动议，这样他们就可以开始得到为什么他们的亲人失踪的答案。”

蒙格卢茨说，律师事务所预计这项动议将于周四在迈阿密戴德县法院审理。

Surfside building collapse latest: Death toll rises to 18 after 2 children found

At least 18 peopleare deadand 145 others remain unaccounted for after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed in SouthFlorida's Miami-Dade County last week, officials said.

The massive search and rescue operation marked its seventh day on Wednesday as crews continued tocarefully comb throughpancaked piles of debris in hopes of findingsurvivors. The partial collapseoccurredaround 1:15 a.m. local time Thursday at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex's 136 units were destroyed, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah.

The latest bodies pulled from the rubble were those of two children, ages 4 and 10, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Wednesday evening.

"For any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event, is a tragedy. But the loss of our children is too great to bear," the mayor said. "We're now standing united once again with this terrible new revelation that children are the victims as well."

So far, 139 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who stressed that the numbers are "very fluid" and "continue to change." Officials previously were including the number of deceased among those accounted for but are now separating the figures.

"Our teams have worked through the night, as they have every night, to make headway through the rubble," Levine Cava said during a press conference in Surfside earlier on Wednesday. "The world is watching."

'We're not going to leave anybody behind'

The remaining structure was cleared by rescue crews last week, and all resources have since been shifted to focusing on the debris, according to Jadallah. Hundreds of first responders and volunteers have been working around the clock to locate any survivors or human remains in the wreckage. However, poor weather conditions -- among other challenges -- have periodically forced them to pause their efforts.

"It's been tough," Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said at the press conference Wednesday morning, before noting that crews are "hoping for a positive outcome."

"The spirits are high," he added. "We're still moving forward."

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters that there have been questions from families about when the efforts will transition from search and rescue to recovery. But he said there's a strong consensus among officials and rescuers: "We're not going to leave anybody behind."

"This is going to go on until we get everybody out of there," Burkett said at the press conference Wednesday morning.

Crews have cut a vast trench through the pile to aid in their search, according to Levine Cava. As of Tuesday afternoon, they had moved more than 3 million pounds of concrete -- over 850 cubic feet -- according to Cominsky.

Meanwhile, dump trucks have begun moving debris to an alternate site, according to Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, who told reporters that rescuers have "all the resources" they need.

Crews have still not physically reached the bottom of the pile but cameras placed inside showed voids and air pockets where people could be trapped, according to Jadallah.

More than 80 rescuers -- each working 12-hour shifts -- are on the pile at a time, listening for sounds and trying to tunnel through the wreckage, according to Andy Alvarez, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's deputy incident commander overseeing search and rescue efforts. Speaking to ABC News on Monday, Alvarez described the process as both "frantic" and painstaking.

The conditions on the pile are "bad" and "not ideal" for rescuers, Alvarez said, due to heat, humidity and rain, but efforts are continuing around the clock. Crews are using various equipment and technology, including underground sonar systems that can detect victims and crane trucks that can remove huge slabs of concrete from the pile, according to Alvarez.

The site also has proven to be dangerous for rescuers. One area had to be roped off Tuesday due to falling debris, according to Burkett, and crews are no longer entering the remaining structure because it's considered unstable, Levine Cava told reporters.

"We're exhausting every avenue here but it's a very, very dangerous situation and I can't understate that," Cominsky said at the press conference Wednesday morning.

It's the largest-ever deployment of task force resources in state history for a non-hurricane event. But as the Atlantic hurricane season ramps up, officials are monitoring storms in the region in case some resources deployed to Surfside are needed elsewhere, according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

"'Tis the season, and you've got to be ready," DeSantis said at the press conference on Wednesday.

Some of the first responders are members of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's urban search and rescue team, Florida Task Force-1, which is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Urban Search and Rescue Response System and has been deployed to disasters across the country and around the world. Search and rescue teams from Israel and Mexico have also joined the efforts in Surfside.

Although officials have continued to express hope that more people will be found alive, no survivors have been discovered in the rubble of the building since the morning it partially collapsed. Bodies, however, have been uncovered throughout the site, which crews have categorized into grids, according to Cominsky. The fire chief told reporters that rescuers with specially trained dogs are still "constantly" "searching for life" amid the debris.

Officials have asked families of the missing to provide DNA samples and unique characteristics of their loved ones, such as tattoos and scars, to help identify those found in the wreckage. Detectives are also in the process of conducting an audit of the list of those accounted and unaccounted for, according to Levine Cava.

"The process of verifying every name on this list is very slow and methodical," the Miami-Dade County mayor said at the press conference Wednesday morning. "Sometimes we receive incomplete reports, we don't have the full information, it's difficult to reach the people who provided the reports."

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Surfside on Thursday, according to a statement from the White House. Last week, the president approved an emergency declaration in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts in the wake of the partial building collapse.

Investigation 'will take a long time'

The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanesremains unknown. The Miami-Dade Police Department is leading an investigation into the incident.

"We are doing everything humanely possible -- and then some -- to get through this tragedy and we are doing it together," Levine Cava said Wednesday.

The federal agency National Institute of Standards and Technology announced Wednesday that it has activated its national construction safety team to investigate the collapse.

The investigation will be a "fact-finding, not fault-finding" one that could take years, Dr. James Olthoff, director of the small agency that investigated the collapse of the World Trade Center towers after 9/11, said at Wednesday evening's press conference.

"It will take time, possibly a couple of years, but we will not stop until we have determined the likely cause of this tragedy," Olthoff said.

The Miami-Dade County mayor told ABC News last Friday that there was no evidence of foul play so far but that "nothing's ruled out."

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she plans "to request that our Grand Jury look at what steps we can take to safeguard our residents without jeopardizing any scientific, public safety, or potential criminal investigations."

"I know from personally speaking with engineers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology that their investigation to determine exactly how and why the building collapsed will take a long time," Rundle said in a statement Tuesday. "However, this is a matter of extreme public importance, and as the state attorney elected to keep this community safe, I will not wait."

Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work, according to Surfside officials.

The partial collapse happened as the Champlain Towers South Condo Association was preparing to start a new construction project to make updates, according to Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the association. Direktor told ABC News last Thursday that the building had been through extensive inspections and the construction plans had already been submitted to the town but the only work that had begun was on the roof.

Direktor noted that he hadn't been warned of any structural issues with the building or about the land it was built on. He said there was water damage to the complex, but that is common for oceanfront properties and wouldn't have caused the partial collapse.

A 2020 study conducted by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor at Florida International University's Institute of Environment in Miami, found signs of land subsidence from 1993 to 1999 in the area where the Champlain Towers South condominium is located. But subsidence, or the gradual sinking of land, likely would not on its own cause a building to collapse, according to Wdowinski, who analyzed space-based radar data.

Miami-Dade County officials are aware of the study and are "looking into" it, Levine Cava told ABC News last Friday.

Records show structural damage, concerns over nearby construction

A structural field survey report from October 2018, which was among hundreds of pages of public documentsreleasedby the town late Sunday, said the waterproofing below the condominium's pool deck and entrance drive was failing and causing "major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas." The New York Times first reported the news.

In a November 2018 email, also released by the town, a Surfside building official, Ross Prieto, told the then-town manager that he had met with the Champlain Towers South residents and "it went very well."

"The response was very positive from everyone in the room," Prieto wrote in the email. "All main concerns over their forty year recertification process were addressed. This particular building is not due to begin their forty year until 2021 but they have decided to start the process early which I wholeheartedly endorse and wish that this trend would catch on with other properties."

A former resident, Susanna Alvarez, told ABC News on Sunday that Prieto said during the 2018 meeting that the condominium was "not in bad shape" -- a sentiment that appears to conflict with the structural field survey report penned five weeks earlier.

ABC News obtained a copy of the minutes from the November 2018 meeting of the Champlain Towers South Condo Association, which stated that Prieto had reviewed the structural field survey report and "it appears the building is in very good shape." NPR was the first to report the news.

Prieto has not responded to ABC News' repeated requests for comment. He is no longer employed by the town of Surfside. He has been placed on a "leave of absence" from his current post as a building inspector in nearby Doral, according to a statement from the city on Tuesday.

When asked on Monday whether Prieto misled residents during the 2018 meeting, Surfside's mayortold ABC News: "We're going to have to find out."

Meanwhile, Surfside officials and engineers are concerned that recent construction of a nearby residential building may have contributed to instability at the Champlain Towers South and, according to one expert, could have potentially been "the straw that broke the camel's back."

"Construction of a neighboring building can certainly impact the conditions, particularly the foundation for an existing building," Ben Schafer, a structural engineering professor and director of the Ralph S. O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, told ABC News on Tuesday. "A critical flaw or damage must have already existed in the Champlain Towers, but neighboring new construction could be the 'straw that broke the camel's back' in terms of a precipitating event."

According to media reports from that time, the construction began in 2015 when Terra, a South Florida development firm, started erecting Eighty Seven Park, an 18-story luxury condominium in Miami Beach, across the street from the Champlain Towers South. The project caused such a raucous for residents that Mara Chouela, a board member of the Champlain Towers South Condo Association, reached out to Surfside officials in January 2019, according to records released by the town.

"We are concerned that the construction next to Surfside is too close," Chouela wrote in an email. "The terra project on Collins and 87 are digging too close to our property and we have concerns regarding the structure of our building. We just wanted to know if any of tour officials could come by and check."

Chouela received an email back from Prieto, saying: "There is nothing for me to check."

"The best course of action is to have someone monitor the fence, pool and adjacent areas for damage or hire a consultant to monitor these areas as they are the closest to the construction," Prieto added.

Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer told ABC News on Tuesday that Prieto's response to Chouela reflects "laziness" from someone who was "too comfortable" in his job.

"The residents should have a place to go for their complaints," Salzhauer said. "They should have been treated seriously."

"What happened here is a wake-up call for every small town and for every government," she added.

Residents and board members continued to complain about the project next door for several months, mostly about styrofoam and dirt from the construction site ending up on the Champlain Towers South pool deck and plaza, according to documents released by the town.

A spokesperson for 8701 Collins Development LLC, a joint venture that was established by Terra and other developers involved in the project, told ABC News in a statement Wednesday that they "are confident that the construction of 87 Park did not cause or contribute to the collapse that took place in Surfside on June 24, 2021."

Jose "Pepe" Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Commission, told ABC News on Tuesday that he would not speculate what role neighboring construction had on the partial collapse but said officials will investigate it.

Lawsuits against the Champlain Towers South Condo Association have already been filed on behalf of residents, alleging the partial collapse could have been avoided and that the association knew or should have known about the structural damage.

A spokesperson for the Champlain Towers South Condo Association said they cannot comment on pending litigation but that their "focus remains on caring for our friends and neighbors during this difficult time."

"We continue to work with city, state, and local officials in their search and recovery efforts, and to understand the causes of this tragedy," the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Monday. "Our profound thanks go out to all of emergency rescue personnel -- professionals and volunteers alike -- for their tireless efforts."

On Wednesday, two law firms announced they'd filed a lawsuit and emergency motion requesting that a representative of the impacted families be allowed at the site for observation and for permission to use a drone to document evidence.

"The families have no idea whether it is being documented as they peel through that collapse, layer by layer, have no idea what is going to happen to that evidence, and they deserve a voice and a role in this process," Robert Mongeluzzi of Saltz Mongeluzzi & Bendesky, which filed the documents along with the law firm Morgan & Morgan, said during a press briefing.

"We believe that we could give the families a voice and a set of eyes without impairing the critical work of the search and rescue teams that are there, and without affecting at all the investigating agencies that are there," he added.

The documents were filed on behalf of the family ofHarry Rosenberg, a resident of Champlain Towers South who is missing in the collapse, along with his daughter and son-in-law, the attorneys said.

"They do not want this to be about them," Mongeluzzi said. "They have merely filed this so that we can file this motion on behalf of all the families, all the victims, so that they could start to get answers about why their loved ones are missing."

The law firms expect the motion to be heard in Miami-Dade County court on Thursday, Mongeluzzi said.