thank you very much. of course, i am chris cuomo and welcome to prime-time. it's good to be with you, brother, as always. we are live in surfside, florida, tonight, continuing our coverage. look, these are people dealing with the agony of the unknown. this community has come together, but there is a lot of hurt here. and it doesn't stop at the site. over my shoulder, what's happening there is unlike anything i've ever seen in this country before, except for 9/11. and that was a different circumstances precipitated that. the scale was very different. i just got the privilege of a walk-through at the site and i watched every aspect of the operation that is happening. and there are a few things noornt to say right off the top now about 48 hours in. the idea that there are not resources here is absurd. the idea that this is not work that's moving quickly is demonstrably false. this work by its nature is methodical. there are people who could be alive and the faster that you

move materials, the better a chance that you hurt or disrupt whatever is underneath it. they have two active fires going on at that site. the men and women are working on top of one of them. you will see pictures and videos of this. i wanted to start with thinker because of the significance and the eeriness of this. the last time i saw an image like that is when our first responders were standing on the buildings that had been the trade centers and were working through smoke that was so acrid and so choking, and they worked tirelessly because they wanted to find who was there and give answers to the families. and it's happening once again here in florida right now. those men and women are working on top of an active burn, okay? and that is dangerous. they are trying to manage risk. they are standing on top 12 layers of building. it's all been so exprcompressedd

it's been so challenging. there is zero quit in anyone that i saw on that site. and it's really important that the families and communities understand that. i know these guys from task force 2. we've seen their work in haiti where they pulled people out after days. i've seen them work hurricanes. they were at 9/11. they know what they're doing. they're the best of the best, and they are so committed. and they know the task is giant. 159 missing. now, they look at it in two ways. you have unaccounted for, which are people who are known to have been in the building and they can't find versus people who are missing, meaning, they don't know where they are. there are two different numbers. they are being combined in that 159. but all we need to know for right now is the number is big and there is a need for miracle here is. a prayer wall has jumped up just like after 9/11, missing posters of people looking for loved ones. now, of course, that was terror and it was of an unimaginable scale. i lived it, i watched those

families' pain, i understand it. it is happening on a microlevel in this community and every bit as real for the families waiting for an unbelievably large number. this doesn't happen in america. buildings don't collapse under their own weight inexplicably in the middle of the night. and that happened here, and it's raising questions not just about the people who are desperate for answers for their loved ones in tower, but all along this block, there are buildings of a similar age point, 40-ier recertification stage. does this mean anything for them? so i wanted to show you what we saw at the site. and as i see what's going on, i'll explain for you what it was. first, the idea of two active burns. they're using that hose right now as steady pressure on a fire that is deep within. something's burning. could be smoldering, could be active, could be not, hard for them to know. they're still working on top of it. and you have a blessing in florida, because of all the trouble that they have with natural disasters, you have

these search and rescue forces, these task forces, they have a number of them. they're rotating them in and out. this picker that you see with the alpha on it, that has been explained as, hey, is that the right way to look for bodies? they're not looking for bodies. the area has been cleared. this is after that, to move materials out of the way, potential opportunities to find new avenues of ingress. this is not how they're looking for loved ones. it's not accurate and not fair to the efforts and not fair to the families. so i wanted you to see that. and i wanted you to see a piece of footage of what the work actually looks like in realtime of how they separate layers. they call it de-layering. you have all of these sections of the building on top of each other. what was 100-plus feet is now 40 to 50. and when you move from this to the next piece of video, please, in the control room, you'll see that they have to -- we'll get it for you at some point during the show.

they have to prop it up, use blocks to hold it up, send cameras in and dogs in and go step by step. that is the reality. this is the other fire. could it be a mattress? they don't know. they can't go in. and it's very dangerous to get around it. they have a team of engineers and experts to determine how to go in safely. the men and women want to go in. these are the men and women who run into that scenario that scares us to want to stay way. but it has to be safe, because gore fod forbid we lose more people that are in there already. that is the reality of state of play. i just walked it. and all i know is what i saw. and what i saw would be what i would want to see if i was waiting for answers. so now let's get the details on the granular, from the coffee of the city of miami fire rescue task force to assisting with the operations, joe zaralbin. chief z., we've been together

before. good to see you, brother. thank you for taking the time. first, does anything i just said not meet with your expectations of what's happening on site? >> you actually characterized it perfectly. >> so the idea of why it is so hard, why it has to be methodical, what makes it that way, help us understand. >> well, you have to understand that we are in the midst of a rescue mission. we're operating under miami-dade fire rescue, who is in command. and their direction to us has been clear. we are in rescue mode and we have to treat everything we touch as such. so you characterized it perfectly when you said, it is me to theical, it is technical, it is thoughtful, as we remove each piece of debris, because if there is the potential to save a life, we have to give that person every opportunity to survive and make the situation better, not worse. that's why you see such a technical, methodical process being undertaken. >> everyone say saw in the sight

that i talked to, where are you in your hope window, everyone answered immediately, this is hard, they could be in there. is that the kind of confidence you have to carry just to go the job. or is that experience saying, the possible is in there? >> it's both. it's both. we carry hope, because that's what drives us. but we have experience that tells us, it has happened before. take haiti as an example. we were there for the earthquake. five-story pancake collapse, similar to this type of collapse. we operated for about 72 hours in a pancake collapse structure and we were able to successfully remove five people from the structure, largely unharmed. void spaces do exist. so we have to hold out hope and do so with an understanding that it is possible. so something else that was explained to me on the site, that air is getting in to the site through different corridors, and that that's what you think reignited this. this smoke is certainly more dense than we've seen since

we've come today and it's much thicker on site coming out of the side of the building and a separate part of the pile that has steady pressure on it. how do you with a two-front battle with two different burns and working on top of it? >> it's extremely difficult. and i have to say miami-dade fire rescue has done an exceptional job of keeping this fire under control to the point where we can continue to work safely. you might look at it and see, the fire has not been extinguished. we look at it as, they have done an excellent job allowing to us continue to work. because if they weren't doing such a good job, we would be forced off the pile and then, you know, nobody would have the opportunity for survival. >> but this is all about compromise, right? because adding water to the pile does not help your efforts because of the density of the mix and what that does for compression and shifting? help us understand that. >> they could have ten trucks here spraying water on this fire and we couldn't work on this pile because it would be a complete slurry. they're using just enough water to keep the fire under control, so we can do our job, get in

there and work and try to save or access as many areas as possible, and not hinder our operations. so we're undergoing a process right now where we're going to expose a little bit more, maybe get them a little closer to the seat of the fire, so they can have even more effect. but the goal is allowing to us continue to work. >> one of the things you figured out was how to search smart, because, look, to look at it, you can't really differentiate between all 12 stories that are in there. you found another building, same architect or same layout and you walked it to help you understand where to go. and what did that tell you and what were you focusing on? >> when you look at the pile in the rear of the structure, the pancake collapse, we had to try to determine where the best place for penetration might be. so, yes, we did have diagrams, but in addition to that, there is a building three buildings down that is virtually identical. so, yes, we walked the floor plan, we developed a plan, and we began to penetrate. and thankfully, the first thing

that we saw was a mattress. so we know we're in the area that we want to be, which is bedrooms, which is where you would expect people to be at 1:30 in the morning. >> 1:30 in the morning. >> 159 people, a wig number. we've never seen a building clap like this in this country. yes, oklahoma city. yes, 9/11. yes, you've had big fires. those were all things that were precipitated by a mass violent event. this is different. and you dealt with it in haiti, but people look at the pile and they say, well, it's not that big. it's volume, it's density that is your concern. how so? >> when you look at it, it's called a pancake collapse because it looks exactly like that. it looks like a stack of pancakes. and the void cases are so strong, they're an extreme challenge to get into and determine if the people have the opportunity to survive. so when you look at the volume of material, it takes a long time to penetrate that volume of material. and what we're doing is, we're

essentially cutting slaps, lifting them out, penetrating, searching, cutting another slab, lifting it out, penetrating, and we'll do that at each layer until we have largely searched many of the void spaces that exist. and even in a pancake collapse, void spaces do exist. >> i was told by people on the site, they don't think it will be like 9/11 where there was such a pulverizing of pressure that you don't find people. they think they'll find people. they're hoping that they're alive. and that's the question. when you look at the realities here of what's happening, what gives you hope? >> what gives me hope is first and foremost the families. the families that were waiting for answers. and that's really what drives us. and mission after mission, time after time, location after location, we see the grieving of the families, the grief on their

face. and it's really what drives every one of the men and women out here that are doing this job. weapon want to bring -- we want to bring -- we want to allow them to understand exactly how this happened, why it happened, and ultimately, reunite them with their loved one. >> has there been as much signal or indication as there was early on? have you guys been hearing banging, hearing anything? >> no, we haven't been hearing many sounds. a lot of that occurs in the first, you know, the first few hours of the mission. so miami-dade fire rescue, as they came in and worked feverishly to get the most amount of people out, or access the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time that they typically could, that's typically when you hear that. we haven't sincered that today, but it doesn't mean that we lose hope. it means we continue to drive forward. >> i understand what motivates the head and keeps the hands going. how about the heart? how do you deal with the emotional toll of knowing what you're doing on this pile?

knowing how singular an event it is. and how important it is to this community. and really all eyes of the country? >> it's incredibly difficult for the men and women who do this work. but again, they find solace in the fact that they know that they are doing it for the families that are waiting for answers to find out what has happened to their loved ones. and that's what drives them and continues to drive them mission after mission after mission. >> all i know is being out here and seeing the community come, their faith is largely motivated by the commitment that they know is going on on that site, that you guys are acting as if you are looking for your own family. and it makes all the difference to them and the community. and i hope you're safe, as i say every time, there are the best of us and the rest of us watching you do your work. and thank you for the opportunity to talk to us tonight and doing the job for these families. appreciate you. >> thank you. >> this is the chief of task force 2, very lucky to have multiple task forces. they are on that pile right now, doing the work that hopefully will make the difference to

these families. i want to bring in someone else who knows exactly what this chief is doing, because he used to work with him. and the understanding of what the challenges are and how they have to be looked at within the specific windows. because i know that's the curiosity. i have somebody who has lived in reality and we'll get the best perspective we can in this moment right after this. i didn't realize how special it would be for me to discover all of these things that i found through ancestry. i discovered my great aunt ruth signed up as a nursing cadet for world war ii. you see this scanned-in, handwritten document. the most striking detail is her age. she was only 17. knowing that she saw this thing happening and was brave enough to get involved and do something— that was eye opening. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com

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let's start with an unavoidable fact that is a huge problem and frustration in this situation. buildings do not just fall down on their own. not in this country. building standards are real. inspections are real. materials are real. we've never seen anything like this. and yes, you can liken it to other things, bridges. this is a building. it is a different set of -- it's

a different set of variables, okay. and we don't see it, and that's why the answer is so important. now, 9/11 is the last time that we saw buia building collapse ur its own weight. and of course, it was terrorism, and it was of a very different scale. but when you lived it, you see and smell similarities in the dynamics, in the challenges, and the humanity that must be noticed right now. joe hernandez has been all over the world working to save lives from exactly those types of tragedies. he worked with task force 2. he's a chief, he understands search and rescue and understands it as well as anyone. joe, thank you very much. i've been with the task force. we're both in 9/11. we both saw what was happening in haiti. days in, they rescued them. and the 9/11 thing sparks comparisons, not to work on people's hearts, but to put context in their heads about what this is, how so. >> exactly what's going on. you just slowed everybody down.

everybody's wondering, guessing what's going on, why aren't they in a hurry to get people out of there? why are they taking so long? why are the fires not out? and you just took your time to educate the public on exactly what is going on, and what's happening with those rescuers inside that pile. it takes time. it's methodical. it moves slowly. the times the fire was under control and sometimes it's not. >> so, it definitely has picked up. we have video of this two-front fire that they're dealing with, okay? one is it pillowibillowing out window. it's haze, it's nighttime. when i was able to walk this site, this is what it looks like from their perspective, okay? so that is not a put an extinguisher on it, it's just a mattress. you don't know how deep it is, but it's significant. what does that do in terms of just choking off opportunity? >> we feared that in 9/11. we feared that with the rescuers

that were underneath trying to save the rescuers in the building with firefighters themselves. how long can they live in that? go back even to the pentagon. we know a lot of our brothers that had to go in and out of that building while the fires were still active, actually absorbing a lot of that carbon monoxide. >> and carbon monoxide is always a problem with fire. you don't know what's burning, though. household chemicals. what's in vehicles, what's in building equipment >> all of it. all cancer-causing materials. >> and obviously, very noxious to the people who are inside. >> 100%. >> and then you have another front of a fire on the backside that i was able to take video of for the audience that they have a steady stream hose on. and then, the men and women are working on top of that fire. and obviously, common sense told me, you don't want to work on top of a fire. they say that's the balance. >> correct. >> how so? >> they're trying to risk themselves, life over limb. it's one of those terms they use. right now, they're trying to rescue the people that are under there. they're willing to put themselves in harm's way, to the

point of going to the edge of the bridge, going to the edge of the dock and saying, i'm here and i'm going to stay here and help as much as i can until somebody forces me off or the consequences of what's going on forces me off. >> what was explained to me on the site was -- because there's a lot of people there. there's a tremendous number of bodies ready to work. and they say, well, you can't have them on the pile. the pile is not stable. so they showed me the de-layering that they're doing. this is that steady state fire. you see the men and women on top. and on the other side of this. they do it in quadrants. it's "a," "b," "c," and "d." they do it as a square. on another side of the squad rant, there, i shot it wide. you have the guys on top that are listening and checking with a probe. and then in the middle, they have de-layered, as you guys called it, and they blocked it up with wooden blocks and sent in a censor and a camera or a dog. and they've been doing that spot by spot.

this is the process. >> absolutely. there's just a few of them on top. they're using a listening device and they can pick up found, scratches, back and forth movement. so they're trying to pick up that location. the rescuers were able to pick up that side of the pile, crib it with what cyou said, with th wood, being able to secure that area and send the canines. if the canines give a live hit, they'll confirm it for the second time, and that will be putting in a search camera and being able to communicate with that person and/or visualize that person. cameras have a 360 eye and a real far extension so they'll be able to see pretty far inside that pile, ie, haiti. >> soio is intimate enough with the capabilities of this task force, because he was just recently teaching the guys on the medical suppression and having those on-site skills, he literally was just working with these guys, who are now putting those skills to work. is there a miracle scenario where you use this saw, you

remove a bigger block of this, and have a super event of access where you can find a lot of people at once? >> absolutely. you hit that void pocket, maybe one big long piece of concrete from that piling, an i-beam, a twin "t" fell in a certain area and create what had we used to call that pancake. went from a lean-to now or a "v" s so underneath the pancake could be a couple of voids. even a refrigerator could hold up a piece of concrete. >> and in this last picture, i wanted to show, you lived 9/11, you served there, you know the level of commitment. i don't think we've seen it since then. of course, we have the fire jumpers and guys going out and dealing with natural disasters all over, you guys are often at them. but this picture i would like to go back to. this is the side of the building. there's a lot of that window-maker material, where it could fall on them and they have to remove it. but if you can go back to that silhouette picture, it hits so many of the people who were

there at 9/11. what does it mean to see this? >> it probably gives them a reflection back to that time, as the sun was setting, as it did for you and caught your attention, it was a reflection of the leftover of tower 1, the skeleton. not a lot left of tower 1. we were on the east side of that tower walking into that pile every day. one of the pictures i took has that same reflection. and, you know, a moment in time, it goes back to nap and i think they might reflect that. but the pouring out of the people, the pouring out of the responders and the pouring out of everyone seems to be pretty close. >> that's what i wanted people to understand. the men and women there, they are all in. they are as engaged and as committed as i've ever seen and this is hard work, and it's slow work. but i appreciate your perspective, chief. >> thank you very much. >> i appreciate it. and i think, look, it's important to remember. this is hard, this community is hurting. they're holding on to each

other. they're praying for answers, literally, i saw members of several different denominations here in their own prayer groups. they're offering each other shelter. you can go to cnn.com/impact to figure out how to help. there's so many people who have been displaced. all the people who were evacuated. the people who were lucky enough to get out. you have to talk about them, as well. there were a few dozen that managed to escape the building in the immediate aftermath. we have a couple of the survivors to talk about what it was like and what it means to them to be living in this moment of unknown right now. how did they get out and what do they hope for everybody else? we'll be right back from surfside, florida.

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all right. so we're here in florida. we're watching the rescue efforts that are ongoing now.

we've never seen anything like this. and that happens in a lot of different layers. the survivors are a group of people who have lived through something that is unimaginable. and i have two people with me who got out, they didn't even know it was their building when they heard what was going on until they opened their door, okay? and they got out along with their 22-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter, thank god. and i want you to meet now albert and jeannetteaguero. it is very, very good to meet you like this. it is very good to have had you made it out. let's just do this the way it happened. 1:30 in the morning. what do you hear? >> we're asleep and we hear this loud thunderous sound. don't know what it is. my initial gut was a loud clap of thunder, the power went out. i thought the building was struck by lightning. that's honestly what happened, what i thought happened. she jumps out of bed and checks on the kids, right? the kids are fine.

they say, ways going on? but then she realizes that the chandeliers and the lights in the apartment are all swinging back and forth. so we know it's something more than just a storm. we've lived through hurricane sandy. it wasn't that. now we don't know what it is. i see the fire trucks approaching. they were great, they got here immediately. we now don't know what it is. i see a gray cloud outside of the outside of the apartment building. i think it's smoke, because i still think it's lightning. when i open to go yell to the fire department, i realize it's not smoke, there's no smell to it, and it's sticking to my fingers. it's the concrete dust. and now i know that a building fell down. still don't think it's ours, because we're in tact. >> your unit, just so you know, if we go wide for a second, jerry, is just over here. >> has the two white chairs on the balcony, second to top floor.

>> so literally, the "t," they're on this part of the "t" and the other part is what had collapsed. . so when you open the door and get out there, when did you realize? >> fortunately for me, i wasn't the first one to open the door. they came out first. and since we had no idea what was going on at the moment and we were still contemplating whether we were leaving. at that moment, we thought, should we go back to bed? >> are we safer in the apartment? and i hear them say, oh, maybe we should have thought about leaving a lot faster. maybe we're not so safe. and they had taken a look to the left, i still hadn't reached, when i get there and see what they're looking at, the whole building is sheared off. we can literally see the roof caved in and just darkness. >> how did you get down? well, we obviously knew anyway, we were going to go down the stairs. so we're on vacation, we're not familiar with the building as it is.

so that's why we initially looked left, hoping the exit was there, realized, we really need to get out. and we looked to our right. the elevator was gone. and the stairs are right next to it. but he opens the door and we realized that the stairs are also compromised. and -- >> the wall is missing. >> there's like open air stair now. >> so everything that was attached to the side on the elevators is gone. some floors have the wall, some floors don't. so now we're -- it's just a mad dash to get down. >> how many floors? >> 11. >> we were on the 11th floor. >> so you were on the second to last floor. >> only the penthouse was above. >> how long did it take you to get down? >> pretty quick. it was pitch dark. we were just yelling back to our kids. were you all still there? it was, are you still there? are we okay? >> what are you thinking as you're coming down? >> i'm thinking we're racing against the clock, because the rest of the building is going to come down. i realized when i opened the door and i'm thinking, if i start to feel something come

down, how do i jump on my daughter to save her? that's honestly what i was thinking. i know she's getting banged from people who couldn't open the door to the stairwell. >> because it was jammed. she was opening the door for a couple of people coming down. >> there were other people coming down also? >> yes. >> we reached about the third floor, we encountered an elderly lady who needed help, so my son and i brought her down to the first floor. and then when we got to the first floor, it was started to flood. we were up to about our calf with water. it wasn't anything deep, but you definitely could tell that it had collapsed. at that point, and now we had to climb up about three feet of rubble with this elderly lady, plus, you know, my family, and make sure we all got out. >> the kids weren't hurt? they were good? >> everybody is good, everybody is healthy. minor scratches, which, unbelievably, after all of this. >> when you realized, once you were out, what it was you had

escaped, how did you make sense of it? >> i was just grateful my son was there to hold me up, because the minute i looked behind me to really get a grasp of what had happened and what we had just gotten out of, it was pretty -- it was surreal. ser it was scary. it was terrifying. there was a mix of emotions. i was sad for -- i saw the flattened building and i was like, that could have been us. my kids are here. i couldn't make sense of any of it. i felt like, why? why did we get out and how did we get out? >> we were talking before. it's not our job to explain what life brings our way, it's just our job to deal with it. and thank god you got the kids and you got out, because you know how many people don't have that story. >> i know. >> in terms of any kind of insight, was there construction going on? anything that you thought about afterwards? repairs? >> so they had been doing construction. so we came down for valentine's

day, it was my birthday on valentine's day, we came down in february and there had been a lot of drilling and sounds from up from the roof, from the roof. >> that later on we found out it was building. but when we came again, it's june and that work is still going on. so either it's a very large project or something is gone. we thought that was one. talking to some of the other residents, they were saying that when they built the building next door, it created a lot of swaying in our building. >> there was a new building. >> they'll have to figure that out. >> i heard your segment earlier and one of the things that i guess angers me or frustrates me is, we shouldn't have to go to bed worried if our building is going to fall. we live in a high rise back in new jersey. she's afraid. she's -- you know, afraid right now. she works in the city. she's afraid that those are things that we have to take into account now. how are we going to manage this.

>> you've got context, also. this is the only one we've ever seen. we have to find out why. i'm sure there's going to be an urgency on that, because there will be so many stories that don't have your story and they'll want to know an answer for why, if they're lucky, they'll be able to bury loved ones that didn't make it out. and take it one day at a time and thank embody i got to meet you guys and your kids are okay. >> thank you. >> i know this is not a conversation that is easy to have after what you lived through, but thank god you did. thank you. you've got beautiful kids. >> thank you. >> thank you so much for being here. >> no, thank you for being here, because it gives people hope. >> i hope so. >> i know this has been hard and it will keep hitting you. but you've got each other and there is a gift in that now that i'm sure will be valued a little bit differently after this. >> absolutely. >> all right. let's take a break right now. when we come back, this is the aguero family. they're one of the few stories we've had this comes out of this

on the good side. and we have a long way to go. we're not going to know the cause soon. victims, families, they must get answers. this does not happen in america. so let's bring in an attorney for the condo association. what do they know? 40-year inspection, recertification, what were the issues, what were the concerns, what does the attorney make of the speculation and the questions that were out there. there was a lawsuit filed yesterday. we'll ask the questions and get the answers, next.

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all right. so we know the priorities. search and rescue, then recovery, and of course, the question of responsibility. why this happened is going to have to be a major concern. what do we know? this building was not known for being in disrepair. there is no kind of reporting on that that is substantiative. it was 40 years old. it was going through a recertification process, but what does that mean? there were repairs going on, as you just heard the last guest say. they were going on the roof. what did that mean? let's bring in a lawyer for the condo association to discuss the issues here. her name is donna dimaggio burger. counselor, thank you for taking the opportunity. >> thanks for having me, chris. >> i know it is early and there are a lot of families still waiting for answers about where they loved ones are. you met with the board today. >> i did. >> was anything nobody about

what was being done to the building that in any way gave a reasonable concern that this type of event was possible? >> no, nothing. what the board knew was outlined in that certification report. and they were entirely dependent on the items that the engineering would outline in that report. typical things that an engineer looks for in a certification report, in miami-dade and broward county, which are the two counties that require this kind of certification, a review of the roof, the hvac plumbing, but certainly, if there was nothing hard outside that was outlined in that report, anything that would have proven to be a danger to life. and the engineer outlined what the priorities were, and the priority was the roof replacement, it was underway. >> i understand the logic if the board knew there was something this serious, why would they have stayed in there. i accept that point. but when we hear about the work on the roof and that it was going on for a long time, this talk about spaling, do either of

those things resonate in terms of issues that were going on with the building that were more significant than a 40-year over year certification? >> no. absolutely not. so a lot of these buildings, chris, that are built on the barrier area and on coastal islands, particularly in this age group that have reached or are near their 40-year birthday, you'll see spaling because of the location. you'll need roof replacement. these are not odd, you know, occurrences when it comes to building maintenance. so once again, yes, there was an ongoing roof replace program. it takes time. right now, we also have a contractor crunch in florida, because we've got a lot of buildings right now that are also rushing to install engineer life safety systems and sprinklers. we have a deadline the end of 2023. so we have a contractor crunch of sorts going on. >> be that as it may, what was the nature of what was going on in that building before the cl collapse? >> right now, it was roof replacement, which was underway,

and then there were bids. in florida wonder florida law, boards have to get competitive bids for certain contracts that are above a certain price. >> for the roof? >> for everything. if they're going to do concrete repairs, they need to get competitive bids. those bids were still out and had not yet come back. >> so what about that as a significant issue, that there was concrete work that needs to be done? is that around the foundation? is that something that needs to be looked at? >> it's concrete work typically, chris, that's spaling. we normally see that -- >> so spaling is where rebar, which is the bars inside of cement, attach to moisture and rust and it creates outward pressure that will crack the outer layers of concrete. >> let me give you an example of that. typically with a building like champlain towers south, you've got balconies and people over the years have put things on those balconies. whether it's artificial turf or hard flooring, that flooring tends to trap moisture. that deteriorates the concrete surface underneath. once that surface gets degraded, it can affect the rebar underneath. i've had some buildings where

the balconies have collapsed either partially or fully, where we've had to lock people in, you know, where they cannot get out on to the balcony. but that doesn't bring a building down. >> understood. this research that was done that showed in the '90s a measurement of approximately 2 millimeters a year and this was the only one on the east side of the island that they had seen that happen -- not on the island. on the east side, where they had seen that kind of movement or what they call subsiding, as opposed to sinking, because sinking is going into water, this was going back into the sand base. was that something that the board was aware of? and is it significant to you? >> i think it's significant. the board wasn't aware of it. and my question to the professor or the team that undertook that research is, could they tell? this is a state university. did they inform the city? did they inform the county? kid did they inform the state? that is significant and that's something that we want to dig

into. >> but as far as you knew, there was no reason for people not to be living in that building? no, there was no reason for that. and chris, you have to understand that there are board members with their family members. we have a missing vice president who had two of her adult children living in other units with their families. and you think that's an indicator that this was the type of community people liked to live in. normally when you're happy where you're living, you recommend to family members and friends, hey, this is a great place to live. and we had that. we had board members who were living here, who have their family members living here, so if they knew there was a hazardous issue, they certainly would have taken care of it. also, the building has passed every inspection, every life safety inspection to date. >> the big question is obviously, why. and obviously, something happened and as it gets discovered, we'll keep covering it.

thank you for the opportunity and i'm sorry for anyone you know who is unaccounted for. >> the authorities are coming around and they want people to mask up because of the acrid nature of this smoke. the timing of that, look, things happen when they happen. again, this is a painful time and everything is happening at once. and people are waiting for word on loved ones. we're going to talk to people who have had that experience and they have multiple family members missing, including a 1-year-old niece. that is part of the reality here in surfside, florida, and we will talk to them next.

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hardest stories to hear are from families who are coming up to us here and reaching out pause they don't know where their loved ones are. this man and his wife who is four months pregnant lived in this building along with their one-year-old daughter. his niece joins us now. i'm very sorry for you to be in this situation. but i am grateful to be able to tell the story of who you're waiting on word about.

please, tell us what you know, when the last time is you contacted family. >> we haven't received much updates yet. we have family that has flown into family at the family reunification center waiting for some type of news. my uncle, his mom, has participated in getting the dna samples as we wait to see people be recovered and rescued from the rubble. and the last time i spoke to them was on sunday for father's day. i had actually called them to tell them i had just booked a flight to come visit, because they've been asking me to come see their home, and to meet their daughter. i haven't met her due to the pandemic. >> you know for a fact that they were home at the time this happened? >> yes. they were home, and we had tried

calling them countless times, and there's just been no answers, text messages. and we have a large extended family. they always stay in touch with someone every day. they haven't contacted anybody. we've called multiple hospitals within that area, and there's no sight of them anywhere. >> and you have not been told by any of the authorities that anyone that has been recovered matches their description or you haven't gotten any word that they have been found thus far? >> no. we have not. no. >> this had to be a special time in the life of your family, having the new niece, having a baby in the family often does that, and how is the family coping with not knowing where they are and the worries about the worst? >> the family, we go through waves of disbelief and hope, you know, you hear and see tragic

things but don't expect it to happen to your own. and especially something like this. it was such a freak thing that happened, and it hasn't been explained yet. we are still hopeful and praying for a miracle. we're hoping they're in some type of a pocket somewhere reason the rubble seeking just waiting for someone to come find them. >> well, all i can tell you is i just got to walk the site. the when and women there are committed to searching slox they can and doing everything they can to find anybody who is in there, hopefully alive. and everybody is praying for miracles, and miracles can happen and hopefully they do here, and i'm sorry for your family to be going through this. and i appreciate you talking to us. and i really wish you the best. >> thank you. >> oh, on behalf of family, we wanted to say thank you to --

sorry. we wanted to say thank you to the first responders and to the crew that's out there, the search and rescue crew working tirelessly to find all the victims and we just want to say thank you. we really appreciate everything you're doing for us. >> they're doing the job that i can assure you. and i hope you get word that changes how you're feeling right now, and if we learn anything, we'll get right to you. serena, be well and send our best regards to your family. we'll be right back. that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. that delicious scramble was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. wright brothers? more like, yeah right, brothers! get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble.

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rely on the experts at 1800petmeds for the same medications as the vet, but for less with fast free shipping. visit petmeds.com today. of course, cnn is going to stay on this story. there is so much yet to learn. there's so much of the reality yet to be revealed. thank you for watching our segment of the coverage. it's time,