The focus seems to be on the heirs, many of whom own homes, instead of the living, who have no homes.
But when it became clear they wouldn’t find anybody we asked, ‘What about us?’” Rosenthal said. “After the collapse, of course it was all about search and rescue. Rosenthal emphasizes that the survivors feel neglected.
And this is a very unique circumstance.”. “And here we’re in very uncharted waters because we have victims who, thank God, only lost their units and survived this tragedy, and we have other owners and non-owners who perished in this tragedy. “Many times in cases involving mass tragedies - for example, plane crashes and things where multiple people are killed or injured - all the victims are in the same boat as far as the legal claims and the legal defense,” Hanzman said during a court hearing. Hanzman, considered an expert in complex litigation, has tried to balance the demands of both sides in a class-action case, but the amount of money available to compensate everyone fully and fairly is limited - making him a lightning rod as he tries to be judicious and empathetic. In overseeing the legal fallout from the condo collapse, Hanzman has found himself in a position of trying to appease hundreds of people - from survivors who lost their units to representatives of the victims who died. You don’t seem to care about us, the living, as much as you care about the dead. “’Dear Your Honor, we’re alive and we’re in trouble. “I want to write a letter to Judge Hanzman,” Rosenthal said. Condo owners won’t receive payouts until the Champlain property is sold in the spring. He is frustrated by the wrangling in court about how compensation funds will be divided. Rosenthal is thankful to the Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), the Jewish Federation, the Catholic Church and other donors that gave money to victims, but most of it has been used up paying for rent and new belongings. People are living on limited or fixed or retirement income and having nervous breakdowns about their housing and financial situations.” “People are in therapy for depression and anxiety. “I hear thunder and I jump two feet in the air,” he said. He’s worried about the long-term effects of the smoke he inhaled that night he had throat surgery in 2016. Six months later, Rosenthal relies on his faith to buoy him on dark days. “I attribute that to my parents in heaven, my angels, deciding it was not my time yet.” “The destruction stopped three feet from my door,” Rosenthal said. The units in his section that remained standing were taken down 11 days later as a tropical storm approached and they were deemed unstable. His unit was adjacent to the section of the building that collapsed. Rosenthal tells his rabbis at The Rok Family Shul in Brickell that he thanks his parents for saving him. “When I tell people they give me hugs and kisses or they say, ‘I gotta rub up against you so I can play the lottery.’” His Lithuanian parents were survivors of the Dachau concentration camp. Emily MIchot was born in Germany and grew up in Baltimore, where his family ran a grocery store. He’s waiting for the items to be decontaminated and returned to him. It was his cherished bar mitzvah bag containing his tallit, or prayer shawl, and tefillin, black leather boxes used in prayer. Police found one item of his in the rubble. Rosenthal lost his condo in the collapse. Steve Rosenthal, a Champlain Towers South survivor, does his morning prayers at his temple, The Rok Family Shul in Brickell, wearing a shawl provided by the temple. It’s like my late parents are saying, ‘You’re coming back, Steve.’” “Since then I go to temple every morning. I’m not sure what that reason is, but I’ve changed my ways 180 degrees,” he said. “Up until a month ago I was rotating between three shirts.”īut the recovery of his bar mitzvah items was a revelation that gave him a new sense of purpose. He’s had to buy furniture, clothes, a computer, “a coffee machine, a dust broom - anything you have in your house I’ve had to buy,” he said. Rosenthal, 72, who owned Champlain unit 705, is renting a Brickell apartment for $3,700 a month and has no idea where he’ll move when his lease runs out. He and his fellow survivors and relatives of the people who died are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit overseen by Circuit Court Judge Michael Hanzman. Semi-retired from the advertising business, he has struggled emotionally and financially to resume his life as he awaits court rulings on when and how much he will be compensated for the loss of his condo. Like other survivors of the disaster that killed 98 people on June 24, Rosenthal is living in limbo.
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