Thinking about this terrible condo collapse in Miami's Surfside. Too early to know the cause. A geek on state history, I recall a quote that Florida was built on the seductive delusion that a swamp is a fine place for paradise. The state’s allure — peddled first by visionaries and hucksters, most famously in the Great Florida Land Boom of the 1920s — is no less potent today. There are swamps & bayous & other wetlands, like the Everglades, but the vast majority of the state is solid ground with a rock under layer. Basements are rare because the water table is high. But the Atlantic Coast has her own needs. She does what she wants. Every year, with the coming of high spring and autumn tides, the sea surges up that coast and hits the west side of Miami Beach, which lies on a long, thin island that runs north and south across the water from the city of Miami. The problem is particularly severe in autumn when winds often reach hurricane levels. The city of Miami is built on a unique geology. Miami – and its satellite towns, like Surfside, along with the resorts – is built on a dome of porous limestone which is soaking up the rising seawater, slowly filling up the city's foundations and then bubbling up through drains and pipes. Sewage is being forced upwards and fresh water polluted. Miami's low topography only adds to these problems. There is little land that rises more than six feet above sea level. Many condos and apartment blocks open straight on the edge of the sea. Of the total of 4.2 million US citizens who live at an elevation of four feet or less, 2.4 million of them live in south Florida. And people keep on moving to the Sunshine State - particularly Dade County where there's a town called Surfside that has avenues named for British and American authors, running in alphabetical order from east to west. In December 2020, an oceanfront condominium in Surfside sold for $33 million, one of the most expensive condo sales in South Florida history. Many Jewish people reside there. Several synagogues lie within walking distance of the Champlain Towers condo, and a sizable number of the missing are Jewish.
ROGUEPANDAc.250621 w/help from The Guardian & Wikipedia
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