Horrified FL Condo Resident Saw Cracks Form in Her Apartment, Heard a Fearsome Noise: 'It Was Infernal'

Personal accounts are just starting to emerge of the tragedy that unfolded Thursday morning after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condominium building in Surfside, 🌴Florida.

🌊Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava issued a news release Saturday evening that said that five victims have been confirmed dead, according to CNN. The report said 156 potential victims remain unaccounted for.

One survivor, Iliana Monteagudo, who is in her 50s, recounted to the New York Post the terrifying moments after she was awoken about 1:30 a.m. by “strange noises.”

She told the Post she thought the sounds had come from an “open sliding door to the oceanfront balcony.”

“I ran and tried to close it, but I couldn’t. I imagine because it was unlevel already because of all the movement,” she explained. “I heard a crack and when I looked, I saw a crack traveling in the wall two fingers thick. Something told me, ‘you need to run.’”

Monteagudo, whose unit was on the building’s sixth floor, said that if she had stayed even one more minute, she may not have survived.

“Two more minutes, no, no. Not even one. There was no more time,” she said.

Monteagudo described her escape: “When I was running down the stairs I went from six, to five and then four, I heard a tremendous noise. It was infernal. The building was falling. I don’t know how I managed to escape.”