Hi,
We all live in building. Go up the stairs or the elevator walking on slabs and beams and most of the time not think about them. Not like a boat that moves, they are stable and don’t seem to move.
Even I, working as a structural engineer don’t think about those I stand on, at least not until one of them fall down…
The first item said it was an earthquake in Tel Aviv.
Later all the Whatsapp groups woke up, asking where are everybody.
First the families:
Atzva said it was just near her office and she could feel the vibrations. “It was a crane that fell nearby.”
Later on the structural engineer group – uploading pics and videos from the site. It wasn’t a crane, the all underground parking lot collapsed and collapsed.
Then the office group – looking on the photos try to analyze and understand what happened that caused the failure.
Atzva is a soil consultant, she is working in the Soil consultant office that consultant to this underground parking building. They are still in shock and hope that it isn’t them to be blamed. But once a disaster happens, mistakes can be found in the work of everyone that was involved in the project.
As a structural engineer it made me scared. We are calculating and taking safety factors because we are responsible for those structures. The idea that something I designed and calculated might fall down made paralyzed for couple of hours. One of my first thoughts were “How does he feel right now” and that I would want to be in his place.
Take Care
Elad
The square to be built on top of the parking lot
The parking lot in the final stage of works- adding the level of soil on top of the top slab. The soil weight might be the cause to the failure.
The parking building after the collapse
The parking lot. Look at the columns: First they are painted – meaning the construction was almost done. Second – The failure most probably wasn’t in the columns but in the slab supported on it. A punching shear kind of failure.
A closer look on the columns and slabs
The construction works on the project prior to the collapse
The rescue attempts on site and the loader that fell 4 floors down. Until now (20:00), there are 2 workers that were killed, 23 more are wounded and another 5 buried under the ruins 
loading map - please wait...