Among the theories as to what caused the tragic Miami condo collapse is one targeting a leaky pool at the complex – one that had been the subject of a warning for “major structural damage” to the deck area and below-ground parking garage.

The early Thursday morning collapse, in Surfside, Fla., officially has killed at least four but has left 159 missing.

A consultant engineer in a survey report from October 2018 warned that the waterproofing was failing, and the garage displayed major cracks. The report appeared on the Surfside website overnight Friday.

A New York Times story reported that an attorney for the condo association indicated that repairs were finally about to begin.

On Saturday, hopes of a rescue effort had faded and the grim prospect of a long recovery effort grew more prominent, especially in light of the added burden of smoke from the fires still burning beneath the rubble, officials said in a Saturday morning press conference.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava plans to introduce an audit of all buildings 40 years old or more within the county to be completed within the next 30 days. 

Sources told DailyMail.com many in the building were Latin American tourists who came to the U.S. to get COVID-19 vaccines. 

In the pool-leak report, consultant Frank Morabito wrote the “main issue” was the pool deck and entrance drive area, and the waterproofing of those areas was “beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced.”

Also, that “failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”

Morabito said a “major error” in the original design was that the waterproofing was laid on a flat concrete slab rather than sloped to allow water to run off.

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