Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "WPLG Local 10" channel.

Hae your producers still not noticed that the stupid banner covers the work zone that you have long camera shots on? Someone needs more coffee...
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@Paul Evans with rain and fire hoses etc, there has been a lot of water going into the rubble, and someone might have been trapped in their pantry with food and water, so no, it's not impossible, though unlikely.
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I suspect it's probably CDI doing the demolition, it went perfectly as theirs do, and they are really good at rapid designs like this because they have been doing it for so long. Plus, it was already about to fall down, so getting it to go wasn't hard. Sounded like very little explosives was needed. It was a reinforced concrete building, no steel beams, and that makes it a lot easier as well.
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The problem is, when you hire an engineer to inspect a building, and they tell you that it needs repairs but isn't at risk, you tend to believe the engineers. And if the engineers say it's not dangerous, then the government can't force people to go above and beyond what the experts are saying. It sounds like comers may have been cut decades ago on the construction by people who are now dead, not as much rebar as the plans call for etc, but the modern engineers had no way to know this, and so they do their calculations based on the data they have and see it has plenty of strength. If anyone is at fault it's the residents of the building who have been refusing for years to pay for the work, to the point where most of the board resigned since they couldn't get the work done, because the owners (the residents) wouldn't pay for it.
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@DorothyDandridge the rescue workers were working directly underneath a partially collapsed building, with chunks falling off still, and they were moving the rubble pile around which risked shifting and knocking the standing portion down. Plus they were not able to dig into the rubble near the standing portion because it was helping stabilize it. And then a hurricane is coming in tomorrow I think, and it would be pushing the building onto the damaged portions and be likely to cause it to collapse on top of the debris pile, creating more danger and covering the rescue area. They control dropped it away, and now the site is safe.
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