US media says Florida building's collapse 'tragedy beyond tragedy'

NEW YORK -- There had been years of missed warnings, mixed messaging and delayed action, before the collapse of a condo in the U.S. state of Florida on June 24 that has so far left at least 24 dead and 126 unaccounted for, reported CNN late Saturday.

"This is obviously a tragedy beyond tragedy, and there seems to have been signs of concern," Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County, was quoted as saying. "We're obviously going to be part of the investigation -- the county is going to be doing everything in our power to make sure that we learn from this."

The collapse is "a wake-up-call on many fronts" and may lead to changes in laws or regulations about the frequency of building inspections, said Gary Slossberg, president of a local construction company.

The disaster appears to have also exposed some of the limitations of condo associations, which are made up of condominium owners with a vested interest in the property but that seldom possess much expertise in structural engineering, said the report.

It also raised concerns about whether other residential structures could be at risk in the costal county due to corrosive salty air from the sea, while about two-thirds of all residential buildings there are as old or even older than the 40-year-old edifice that went down, it added.