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A manager at Miami's Champlain Towers condo complex sent an email complaining city officials were delaying urgent repairs just days before the 13-story structure collapsed. 

The message was obtained by The Miami Herald on Friday, as rescuers continued their efforts to find 124 residents sill buried beneath rubble more than a week on from the collapse. The current death toll stands at 24. 

The condo was set to undergo extensive repairs as part of a 40-year safety recertification due this year, and it appears the complex's management team were eager to have the work done as soon as possible.    

Back in 2018, they hired Frank Morabito Consultants to inspect the complex ahead of the recertification process. 

A report from the company raised concerns about the pool deck area, in which the waterproofing was failing, and the underground parking garage which was riddled with 'abundant' cracking.  They reportedly quoted $16 million dollars  worth of repair work. 

By April 2021, the complex had reportedly deteriorated further, with condo board president Jean Wodnicki writing to the building's owners, stating: 'We have discussed, debated and argued for years now.... indeed the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection.'

On May 13 - just six weeks before the condo collapsed - Frank Morabito and condo management finally met with officials from the Surfside Building Department to discuss  the proposed repair work. 

The Miami Herald reports that the condo managers had tried for a week to set up that meeting. 

Afterwards, Morabito sent off an e-mail to the department saying, in part: 'We respectfully request that we hear from the Town in the near future so we can make any necessary revisions to our contract drawings.'

However, there was no response for more than a month. 

That silence prompted Scott Stewart, the condo's building manager, to write to James McGuinness, the director of the Surfside building department, on June 21. 

 'As we are out to bid on our project [we] need to get to answers to these questions... This is holding us up and costs are going up and out 40 year is coming up fast,' Stewart aggressively wrote. 

A manager at Miami's Champlain Towers condo complex sent an email complaining city officials were delaying urgent repairs just days before the 13-story structure collapsed

Back in 2018, they hired Frank Morabito Consultants to inspect the complex ahead of the recertification process. A report from the company raised concerns about the pool deck area, in which the waterproofing was failing, and the underground parking garage which was riddled with 'abundant' cracking. They reportedly quoted $16 million dollars worth of repair work

Slides from the 2018 report are pictured above 

On June 23 - just one day before the condo collapsed - McGuinness replied, saying he needed more information about a temporary parking lot which would need to be set up for workers who would do the repairs. 

He said he wanted details on the parking lot in order to 'prevent the site from becoming a dust bowl or a mud bowl.' 

On the same day, McGuinness allegedly went to the top of the roof of the Chamberlain Towers condo complex to inspect it. 

He later told investigators: 'There was no inordinate amount of equipment or materials or anything on the roof that caught my building official's eye that would make me alarmed as to this place collapsing'.

DailyMail.com has reached out to McGuinness and the Surfside Building Department for comment. 

Frank Morabito of Frank Morabito Consulants is pictured at left. He completed an initial inspection of the building back in 2018 and flagged various problems. He was eager to conduct repairs, which were seemingly being delayed by local officials. Surfside Building Department Director James MgGuinness is pictured at right

Meanwhile, parts of the condo hat are still sanding will be demolished with controlled explosives on Sunday amid fears that Tropical Storm Elsa will topple what's left of the building.  

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava issued a State of Emergency Saturday for Tropical Storm Elsa and made the 'dramatic decision' to sign an emergency order to raise the building before the storm hits the area Monday afternoon. 

Officials told the families of people still missing in the rubble and people who ran out of the building and left everything behind of their decision on Saturday. 

 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during Saturday morning's press conference that they wouldn't let people who escaped go back and get their possessions before the demolition. 

'At the end of the day, that building is too unsafe to let people go back in,' DeSantis said. 'I know there's a lot of people who were able to get out, fortunately, who have things there. We're very sensitive to that. But I don't think that there's any way you could let someone go back up into that building given the shape that it's in now.'

While crews continue to search for victims and sift through debris for victims' valuables, such as jewelry or electronic devices, to return to the families, they face another challenge: COVID-19. 

Workers transport a stretcher with remains extricated from the rubble, near the Champlain Towers South condo building, where 124  people remain missing more than a week after it partially collapsed

Rescue crews continue to sift through debris of the collapsed Florida condo 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey, leave flags at the makeshift memorial Saturday near the collapsed Florida tower

So far, six members of one of the Florida rescue teams tested positive, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said, and the team was removed from the site. 

More than 420 other Florida search and rescue crew members were tested and all came back negative, Cominsky said Saturday. 

In terms of the demolition, officials were told Friday evening that it would take weeks to safely tear down the remaining structure, but Cava said Saturday morning that the Maryland-based demolition company Controlled Demolition Inc. came forward last night. 

Controlled Demolition Inc. says on its website that it has demolished 'thousands of structures across six continents using explosives.' 

Cava said they work fast, their engineers have studied the scene Saturday and said they could demolish the building before the storm impacts Southeast Florida. 

Personal belongings are seen amid debris dangling from the remains of apartments sheared in half, in the still standing portion of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida

Meteorologists predict the eye of the storm, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, won't directly hit the area, but Surfside and the surrounding municipalities could feel the brunt of strong wind gusts. 

Officials fear those gusts would knock down the remaining structure 'in a direction we don't want it to go,' Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said.   

Before the Saturday morning press conference, DeSantis and his wife Casey visited the makeshift memorial near the fallen building. 

They placed flags in the memorial and paid their respects to the victims. 

'This was a tragedy like we've never seen because you just don't expect a building to fall,' DeSantis said during Saturday's press conference.  

A follow-up meeting will be held in the afternoon to finalize details of the demolition, which could be a precarious operation as experts enter the building to bore into the structure to install explosives. 

Fire Rescue Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said the remnants of the demolished building would be removed immediately after with the intent of giving rescuers access for the first time to the garage area that is the focus of the search. 

Currently, rescuers can't go above the first floor because the building is so unstable, Cominsky said. 

From left, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel Fai Yeung and Chief Melanie C. Adams visit the makeshift memorial for the victims