The Champlain Towers South condo building collapsed June 29.
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

President Joe Biden landed in Florida on Thursday to visit the site of the Champlain Towers South condominium. Search-and-rescue crews paused the search effort for survivors early Thursday because of new safety concerns at the site. Structural engineers picked up on dangerous movement in what’s left of the partially collapsed 135-unit condominium tower in the Surfside area of Miami Beach.

With the president there and his verbal assurance that the federal government could cover costs associated with the response to the collapse, the cause of the building failure is also at the center of the discussion. Meanwhile, the number of casualties and injuries has not been updated since Wednesday, because of the pause in search-and-rescue efforts.

In the wake of the building’s sudden crumbling, details continue to surface. For now, here’s what we know about the collapse of the condo, speculation why the building may have collapsed, what we know about the victims and who might be liable.

Why did the Champlain Towers condo building collapse?

Champlain Towers South, the condo residence that collapsed, is in a stretch of residential buildings located in the beach zone of the Miami area. Champlain Towers North and East next door are still standing (more on this below).

Local officials and national news outlets haven’t identified a single reason for the building’s collapse. While it could take months to pinpoint the causes of the failure, a report from a 2018 engineering-firm inspection warned of “major structural damage” to the building.

In April, Jean Wodnicki, president of the condo association’s board of directors, sent a letter to residents outlining proposed repairs based on the report, noting that damage to the building “has gotten significantly worse,” since the 2018 inspection, USA Today reported.

Environmental changes could have also contributed to the sudden failure. The land the Champlain Towers South building sits on is sinking, possibly from a sinkhole or rising sea levels, according to The New York Times. Investigation into possible causes is expected to start after the rescue operation ends.

How many victims are there so far?

As of Wednesday, it’s been reported that 18 people have died in the collapse, with as many as 145 residents unaccounted for. The dead and missing include retirees from New York, those who used the condo as a second home, a Colombian family on vacation and a nanny from Paraguay.

On Tuesday, “unmanned robots” aided human rescue workers to help remove debris in the ongoing search and rescue mission, the Miami Herald reported.

Are the other two Champlain towers being evacuated?

Residents of two sister towers — Champlain Towers North and East — have not been ordered to evacuate their condo buildings yet. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is offering temporary housing for those who do decide to leave while the two remaining buildings are being inspected. The north tower was built in 1981, the same year as the south tower. The east tower was built in 1994.

Will there be lawsuits?

There already are. Following the collapse, condo owners filed a class-action lawsuit against the condo association, claiming the association failed to “secure and safeguard the lives and property.” The law firm bringing the suit said it expects injury-related lawsuits as well, NPR reported.

At the state level, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will have a grand jury investigate the disaster.

Rosendo “Ross” Prieto, a senior building official for Surfside, is on a leave of absence after the deadly incident, according to the Miami Herald and numerous other outlets. After reviewing the 2018 report about the building’s structural damage, he reportedly said the tower was “in very good shape,” according to the Herald.