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'My parents' building wasn't there:' Man recalls moments right after Surfside collapse

Couple found among dead in Champlain Towers South debris
Posted at 3:40 PM, Jun 29, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-29 15:40:53-04

SURFSIDE, Fla. — Sergio Lozano had dinner with his parents at the Champlain Towers South just hours before the collapse.

He then went home in another tower of the Champlain condo building, where he could see his parents' apartment across the way from his.

Lozano said he and his wife were in bed just after 1 a.m. when they heard loud noises. They thought it was a windstorm or a tornado.

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When he went out to his balcony to move furniture, he saw the devastation.

'It was gone,' man says of parents' unit after Surfside building collapse

"I walked out to pick up the patio furniture, thinking that it was a rainstorm, and I go to open the balcony door to go out -- my wife's following me -- and when I look out, it wasn't raining," Lozano said. "My parents' building wasn't there. It was gone."

His parents, Antonio, 83, and Gladys, 79, are among the 11 people confirmed dead.

Lozano said his parents would have celebrated their 59th anniversary on July 21 and had known each other for more than 60 years. The son said that his parents had joked that neither wanted the other one to pass away first because they didn't want to be without each other.

Authorities said they were found together.