MOLINE, Ill. — This Week, News 8's Jon Diaz uncovers insights connecting a 2021 Condo Collapse and the Davenport apartment building collapse. Also, Diaz meets with Augustana College Professor Paul Baumgardner to analyze the current field of Republican presidential nominees looking to challenge President Biden in 2024 and assess the impact of Trump's latest indictment.
Connections between the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse and the Collapse at 324 Main Street
Lawsuits are piling up against the owner of the partially collapsed building in Davenport as well as the city, and in one case the attorneys representing the residents of that building also represented residents in the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse in Surfside, Florida. They claim there are similarities between the two incidents.
News 8's Jon Diaz met with Libby Hendren and Jennifer Titus from WQAD's Tampa sister station to discuss similarities between the 2021 Surfside Condo Collapse and the Davenport apartment building collapse.
Here's the full interview:
Diaz: I want to start with talking about, Jen, your initial impressions when you covered the Surfside condo collapse, when you first got out there. What do you remember most about, you know, getting on scene and beginning the process of covering that story?"
Titus: When Surfside happened, it happened really early morning. So, it's about a four hour drive for us to actually get down to Miami to get down to the site where the condo did collapse. And so once we got down there, we had a pretty good idea at that time that we knew that dozens of people at this point were missing. So it was kind of, I would say, chaos. There was so many road closures, there was probably blocks of where we were pushed back, because we couldn't actually get that close. We had, you know, half of the buildings still standing, they didn't know what was going to happen to the other part of the building. They were going through a big rescue mission. There was still lots of smoke. I remember when we first got down there even being blocks away there was just smoke from the water that the firefighters were using. So, I just remember being pretty far away. We set up at the family reunification center, which for people that don't know, it's basically when there is a tragedy or something's happened, and they're trying to get back together with either family members or loved ones. And then we set up a spot that officials used so they can have a spot for family members to go that are looking for somebody and get that reunification back together. So we hung out there for the first day, or blocks away from the actual scene. But we never really got close to that area for a couple of days.
Diaz: In the days following, as everyone's working to get answers and you're engaging with, I imagine, city, state leaders, maybe first responders, what was that engagement like? Was there sort of really an open dialogue? Or was there a challenge in trying to get at least some of those initial questions answered?
Titus: I think the biggest thing at first, because we had such a rescue mission going on the whole entire time, I would say we had about 100 people that were missing. So the focus right there for the first couple of days was that we were just talking to law enforcement rescue crews. I mean, they were bringing dozens and dozens of firefighters and law enforcement to the site because it was not only summer, June, it was hot. It was long days. And they were going through so much trouble there to protect themselves. They had to make sure that people were trained for this type of a rescue and recovery. And so that's why it really the focus for the first couple of days was that those were our questions of you know, how many missing? How many have been found so far? You know, what do we know about survivors? What do we know about victims? So those were really the questions to officials within those first, I would say 48 hours, but we were still putting in those requests to the city of Surfside and we were speaking with the mayor, we were talking to the mayor within hours of the collapse about what he knew, what his focus was on. But again, those records requests that we were making were for any sort of possible red flag that may have been within the city. Was there any recent inspections? Did they know of any problems within the building? Within 48 hours, the city ended up releasing dozens of documents that really gave us an insight on those red flags.
Diaz: Let's talk about those then a little bit. Here in Davenport. We're seeing, we've seen documents. And there's been a lot of talk that there are these red flags. What did you guys discover, as you look through those documents? And as you talk to people who may have been familiar with what was going on in the building?
Hendren: First, I think it was very apparent that there were issues with the building because the initial reports were saying people had seen leaks coming from the pool. And the pool was with the parking garage. So people were driving through that parking garage and they were noticing water and and knowing that there was an issue. Once we knew that there was a problem like that, we also started hearing about how the board, the condo board there at the towers had been looking through some repairs that they needed to do. And so it became apparent that there were some issues with the building.
Titus: Yeah, they knew that they were in the middle of a reinspection process, we learned that in two counties in the state of Florida, out of 67 counties, there are required re-inspections every 40 years. So not for 4, 40 years. And so this building was going through that re-inspection process, they were going through what needed to be done, because they were up for that 40 year recertification process. And so those documents that Libby just mentioned, that's what they were undergoing. And that's when some of these problems were addressed the, you know, crack by the pool. There were videos, I remember looking at with water coming through the garage she was just mentioning. So that's when we started really asking the questions then about, you know, the inspection process, this recertification process once every 40 years, and that's really kind of what everybody really kind of zoned in on.
Diaz: Have there been changes to laws that have come about as a result of the collapse there?
Hendren: Absolutely, they had a special session last year, and they passed a number of things that now apply to condos, you know, condo owners. Like I said, we're trying to figure out what to do to make those payments and get the things that they needed done with the building. And one of those things that you have to have as a board is a reserve fund for when things like this happened. And that was one of the things that the legislature took into account, they said, boards need to start fully funding those reserves for things that are really important, like the structure of a building downfall, if you will, to them passing that law. There's not enough engineers in Florida to actually do all those reserve studies that need to be done, and actually go in and inspect the buildings as well. So they've been making some tweaks to the law that they originally passed. They came back this year, change, you know, some of the timeframes and stuff like that. But now, you know, there is a state law. And so boards, including my own board are having to look at our finances, you know, and take a deep look at what it means to be a condo owner in Florida.
Titus: And then the other thing that passed in that special session she mentioned is that recertification is now needed every 30 years for not just those two counties, but for every single county in the state. If you are a condo over three storIEs, and then 25 years, if you are in a closer proximity to a ocean, a body of water.
Hendren: Yeah, the saltwater was a huge contributing factor to what happened in Surfside. And probably a majority of our condos are pure shoreline of some sort. So it makes a lot of sense that they give those a lot more scrutiny.
Diaz: The search for answers. There's a lot of questions, and I'm sure you asked, do the answers come quickly? Or is there just a lot of patience that's required not only on our part as journalists, but even just folks in the community who want to know why something happened?
Titus: Well, even I think the national investigation that was done, the last report that I remember, there is still not one thing that they can pinpoint that this is why this happened, like we know that there were these red flags that there were concerns in place, but they never actually pinpointed it, it was exactly this. So we still don't truly know why that building collapsed.
Republican presidential primary outlook
News 8's Jon Diaz met with Augustana College Professor Paul Baumgardner to discuss the role Iowans will play during the Republican presidential primaries.
Diaz: There are now a dozen candidates vying to secure the Republican nomination for president. This past week former Vice President Mike Pence announced his candidacy. During an event in Iowa former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced his second bid for the White House. This morning, we're talking with Augustana Political Science Professor Paul Baumgardner to discuss the role Iowans will play early in the primaries.
Professor Baumgardner, thanks so much for always taking the time to chat with us and educate us a little bit. I want to start by talking about this field of Republican candidates a dozen now, how typical is this? And is this something we would have seen 100 years ago? You got to bring me up to speed here.
Baumgardner: Yeah, I think it's becoming increasingly typical. But it is not what we would have observed 50 or more years ago. So in 2016, the Republican presidential primary had the largest field ever, only to be surpassed in 2020 by the Democratic presidential primary. So it's becoming increasingly common to see very large pools of candidates. It's not right now as large of a field as it was in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, but it's still a very large field. But getting back to your question about maybe its historical similarity or dissimilarity, you know, the the modern presidential primary and caucus system really wasn't born until the 1970s, after a set of reforms with the McGovern-Fraser Commission, so we really didn't see the kind of nominating procedures in place until fairly recently. But yes, even after the 1970s, 1980s, we weren't seeing a dozen plus legitimate viable candidates within a party.
Diaz: These poll numbers that we're seeing right now, what do they tell us? And what don't they tell us? Because it's not a crystal ball as to what's going to happen.
Baumgardner: It's not a crystal ball of what's going to happen. Obviously, you want to be the front runner early, but it's not a fait accompli. Right? So right now, Donald Trump has what looks like a commanding lead. But because we are still months away from Iowa, from New Hampshire, from South Carolina, things are going to change. We're going to see candidates try to accumulate more and more endorsements. We're going to see them try to fundraise effectively. We're also going to see them try to get on the air and more and try to kind of grow their brain to both within those early states, but also nationally.
Diaz: Can you talk about specifically the influence that Iowa Iowa voters have in this process?
Baumgardner: Yes. So this is complicated. On the one hand, this is not a be all end all caucus. If you were to look at to the Republican Victor, in the 2016. 2012, 2008 Republican caucuses, did those three individuals go on to become the Republican nominee? No. However, I think it's really important for some candidates to do well, in Iowa in order to grow some momentum. I think Mike Pence in particular is going to be spending a lot of attention in Iowa and dedicating a lot of resources to the state.
Diaz: The big news of the week, at least one of the big pieces of news of the week, 37 counts in this latest indictment against former President Donald Trump. Can you talk a little bit about, this is not the first time in recent history that he's had some legal troubles. Can you talk about what influence those had on his polling numbers and what influence this could have in the days ahead?
Baumgardner: So first things first, Donald Trump's legal troubles over the past few months have not left a large impact on his national polling. In fact, I think other candidates that are trying to rise within the primaries and caucuses early rankings, they've had a hard time actually attacking Donald Trump effectively on this score. I should also note that these indictments, these charges against Donald Trump, they do not preclude him from continuing on with his campaign. We've had presidential candidates that run from a jail cell across American history, but you're right, I think that we will have to track in the days ahead, the candidates that are able to effectively criticize Donald Trump to show him as an individual who's not right for the party anymore. There are already a few candidates, candidates like Chris Christie that have positioned themselves as the anti Trump candidate as largely critical of how he has conducted himself and his character. Are we going to see additional candidates kind of take aim at Donald Trump? We'll see. But to get back to my earlier point, his previous legal troubles have not had a large and negative impact on his polling. In fact, because there are so many candidates in the race right now, I think Donald Trump's quite happy, the more the merrier. This was actually a key to his success in 2016. When there are 1617 candidates in the race. You don't need 50% In every primary in every caucus, you just need a plurality, right. And Donald Trump has a hold of a good chunk of the Republican Party right now. He has a strong number of loyalists. So if we keep on seeing candidates enter the race, I think this is to the liking of Donald Trump.
Diaz: All right, Professor Paul Bumgardner. Always some great insight from you. We appreciate you taking the time.