Sixty-one-year-old Alfredo Lopez and his 67-year-old wife, Marian, were asleep when the first thundering blast jolted them awake at 1.14am on Thursday, June 24 last year. Moments later, a second boom, much louder than the first, shook the bed on the sixth floor of their apartment in Surfside, just north of Miami Beach, Florida.
Alfredo rushed to wake his 24-year-old son, Michael, urging him to get dressed, before running to the balcony window. He could only see thick, white dust.
The lights cut out and the emergency alarm came on, warning the residents of the Champlain Towers South to evacuate. Alfredo thought about putting on trainers, but his hands were shaking so badly he knew he couldn’t tie the laces. So he settled on sandals with straps. Marian was disoriented.…
