Meltdown In Miami

 In a weird way I was looking forward to the trip to Miami. Zahir did something odd, he let the firm's pilots fly us. We almost brought the full team together again. All but two from the London office and all seven engineers from the Amman office. The big boss chartered a helicopter so each member of the team could see the damage to the Champlain Towers South site. This was not done in morbid curiosity. Our boss believes we must learn from tragedy to prevent its return. He told me when he took me on as an intern he NEVER wanted to see a structural failure of a building his company designed.

 

 We circled the tower at a distance. It looked as if a giant knife cut the building in two. Then the loss hit me as I looked down at the debris pile. One of the young engineers saw what Z had missed, the tears rolling from my eyes. The big boss held my cheek explaining to the others, "This was his tribe. This must not happen to us, ever."

 

 All of our clients have given us free access to the sites. My adopted city is all about prevention now. I am on the boss's team we are reviewing the original designs (numbers and stress loads). Simply put reviewing EVERYTHING for overlooked built in failure points. 

 

 Zahir is heading on-site examinations team. That team has the bigger job. Column by column, load point by load point eyes on examination. They will look at post-build soil elevation and characteristic changes and other signs of potential distress. Where possible/necessary, they are even going to perform fiber-optic and ultrasound exams of the footings. 

 

 A total of seventeen of our buildings dot the Miami area skyline. They will be the safest on Earth.

 

 

 Christopher