Do you believe this video was really taken 15 minutes before Champlain Towers South collapsed?

[Towlie]

NBC News: Video taken minutes before Miami building collapse shows leak in garage

A woman staying across the street from the Miami high-rise that partially collapsed last week took video minutes before the collapse appearing to show water leaking from the base of the building.

Roberto Castillero told NBC News that his wife took the video, which she later posted to TikTok with a caption in Spanish: “The basement was the first part to collapse." The video shows water streaming down from the garage at Champlain Towers South in Surfside.

Castillero said he and his wife were staying at Bluegreen Vacations Solara Surfside Resort across from the doomed high-rise.

She took the video at 1:15 a.m. Thursday, he said. Half of the building flattened at about 1:30 a.m.

I'd like to know what this woman, staying at the building just north of this one, was doing walking by there at 1:15 AM and taking pictures. It seems very unlikely. Did she have a reason for being there? Does the video have an embedded timestamp? I wonder why NBC is so confident that they're reporting this as unquestioned fact.

[XanaDUer2]

1. I watched the video

and had a hard time seeing anything.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. Yeah, the whole start of it is very poor quality for me - not just the bit from her phone, but NBC

footage. Too low quality video to be able to tell anything about flowing water.

[kysrsoze]

26. You can see it in these video links, especially the Miami Herald link at the top.

I was looking for a flood, but it's a steady stream. It's hard to tell where the water was traveling from in the video, but it obviously doesn't make sense to see that much water flowing from an apartment above the garage. Literally tons of rubble on the floor too. There was obviously much more water collecting above.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article252476138.html

Link to tweet

[FreeState]

27. Really? You can clearly see it coming from the ceiling in the garage

Direct link:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdmEu6u7/

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. That link is way clearer than NBC's effort - thank you

It's about 5 times better resolution (ie what's 1 pixel wide from NBC is 5 pixels in that). Yes, that is a steady stream of water, as if from a large pipe in the ceiling of the garage.

[Haggard Celine]

2. Smoking?

Smokers witness all sorts of things.

[exboyfil]

3. I think she said she was at a neighboring building's pool area

and heard the noise of the inrushing water. That is when she took the video. She also has video from apparently the same phone immediately after the collapse.

I think they also verified the timestamp on the phone. I have no reason to distrust her story.

[RockRaven]

4. You're skeptical that people staying at a resort/condo, during the summer, in the tropics, are awake

and walking outdoors at 1AM? Really? That part of their story seems extremely plausible to me.

[Towlie]

9. No, I'm surprised that NBC reported it as fact. Reputable journalists usually avoid such commitments

 
?

If NBC is so confident that they say in their headline, without reservation, that it happened, then they must have evidence that they're not disclosing.

[Sympthsical]

18. Phone videos have verifiable timestamps

Which, in the story I read, was verified by the outlet doing the initial report.

[mitch96]

13. +1.. After living in SoFla for years, people are out and about at all hours of the nite...nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. You know people stay awake past 9:30 pm, yes?

I suppose waking past a building with water pouring out of the ceiling might be interesting to someone with a camera. And since we all carry them newfangled camera machines…

[liberal_mama]

10. My husband goes to bed at 9:00pm, but I'm up until 3 or 4 am. On vacation, after he goes to sleep,

I have all sorts of adventures. I go get some food and walk around and explore the area, people watch, ect.

[Chainfire]

21. Is staying up that late even legal???

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. .

I'd like to know what this woman, staying at the building just north of this one, was doing walking by there at 1:15 AM and taking pictures.

Walking.

[USALiberal]

12. I see people out all the time at 1:30 AM. Nt

[SoonerPride]

7. It seems "very unlikely" ?? Why would that be? People are up at 1AM.

Some are even awake at 2AM.

I don't get your skepticism

[fescuerescue]

8. Phone videos and photos are timestamped and GPS stamped nowadays

Plus SOMETHING happened to that building.

It didn't go from fin to collapsing without some intermediate steps. Some major setting could obviously break pipes.

And I dunno man. I've walked by lots of buildings late at night. If I saw water rushing out of one, I might take a few pictures.

Plus if the water is coming from a different building, that building is presumably still there with water leaking, so its shouldn't be to hard to find.

I mean maybe it's faked. But that seems like a lot of trouble to accomplish what exactly? To accuse a building of having problems that we know had problems...because it actually did collapse?

[cate94]

11. It was posted

On TikTok 8 minutes before the collapse.

[Towlie]

14. Don't forget your links to evidence, people.

 
?

And if you have verifiable evidence, that still doesn't explain why NBC made such a flat-out claim without mentioning any evidence of their own. Normally you'd see headlines saying "according to ..." or something similar.

[cate94]

17. This information

Was at your link, in the video.

[vanlassie]

25. I heard someone (Rachel?) last night show it and specifically say

NBC had checked the metadata for confirmation.

[Hekate]

15. I assumed she took it from her own balcony

[csziggy]

23. The view in the video is what you'd get from the pool area of the building to the north

On Google Maps Street View, you can go down the road between the Champlain Towers South and the Solara Surfside Resort and get the exact view that is on the video.

https://goo.gl/maps/HEVnErWsNESJ7XRC7

Link to the video in news report: https://abc7ny.com/florida-collapse-video-miami-condo-tiktok-before-collpase-champlain-tower-south/10847025/

Looking at that video carefully, it looks to me as though there were chunks of concrete on the floor of the parking garage shown in the video.

[alphafemale]

16. I guess you've never been to Miami Beach

It does not even really get the party stared until about midnight.

[Vinca]

19. I got the impression from one news report that it was taken from another building.

They said some people had come out on their balcony in the Champlain Tower and they were yelling at them to get out of the building, but they couldn't hear them. That would seem right since there have been other reports of a woman calling her husband at work and telling him about the noises she was hearing in the building and then suddenly the line went dead. Another woman who managed to get out also reported that suddenly giant cracks started to open up in her walls. The couple on the balcony were probably trying to figure out what was going on. Guess we won't know the significance of the water until they investigate the ultimate failure in the building.

[11 Bravo]

20. Have you ever been to Miami?

Trust me, there are people out and about all night long.

Also, I believe the time stamp has been verified.

[Treefrog]

24. I have. It's just weird to be taking a video of water in a garage.

I think that’s what the op is saying.

[chowder66]

31. They heard a loud sound which drew their attention to it. nt

[Treefrog]

28. I found it odd also.

Not for the time of the night. She said they were at the pool wherever they were staying. During my partying days, that’s normal lol.

[JI7]

30. 1 am is not that late to be out if people are on vacation

Everyone has cameras these days on their phones and people are always taking pics of random things.

Not sure if what she is saying is true but there wouldn't be anything unusual about it .

[Captain Stern]

32. Yes, I do. n/t