SURFSIDE, Fla. — Nearly one yr after the Champlain Towers South condominium complicated collapsed, relations of the victims are sharing the tales of their family members and reflecting on the previous 12 months.

Hilda Noriega was one of many 98 individuals killed when the tower collapsed. She was the twelfth particular person to be recognized six days after the June 24, 2021, collapse.

Her grandson mentioned she might have been the oldest resident within the constructing at 92 years previous, however she was eternally younger at coronary heart.

“She was so independent and energetic,” Michael Noriega mentioned.

Supplied By Michael Noriega

Michael nonetheless remembers the disbelief he felt when he noticed that the high-rise constructing the place his grandmother lived had collapsed.

“The first night we were here, there was debris all over the street,” Michael mentioned, talking to WPTV from the positioning the place his grandmother’s constructing as soon as stood. “And my father, here right on Collins Avenue, stepped on something and looked down, and underneath a layer of dust was a birthday card that had been given to my grandmother two weeks prior by her prayer group.”

Supplied by Michael Noriega

Noriega was additionally mom to Carlos Noriega, the previous Miami Beach police chief and present police chief in North Bay Village. Michael mentioned his father was the primary to listen to the information.

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“The only thing he said, in shock, was, ‘The building is gone. The building is gone.’ And we didn’t know what he meant,” Michael recalled. “We couldn’t even comprehend. Even when we saw it with our own eyes, we couldn’t comprehend it.”

Most of his grandmother’s issues had been misplaced within the rubble. However, along with the birthday card, they had been capable of finding just a few of her issues, which Michael mentioned they are going to cherish eternally.

Brian Van Pelt/WPTV

“The birthday card, the picture of family and the rosaries that symbolized her faith, those are everything that she lived for,” he mentioned.

In the previous 12 months, little has been mentioned about why the constructing collapsed. Michael mentioned he desires solutions, however he’d moderately look forward to the proper solutions than rush to conclusions.

“Why did this happen?” he requested. “How did this happen? How do we make sure that this never happens again?”