Santos: the city of "falling" buildings in Brazil

They say that a person can get used to any conditions of existence, and this rule is vividly confirmed by the residents of the Brazilian city of Santos, who have been living in “falling” high-rise buildings for years. The slope of residential buildings along the coastline is clearly visible to the naked eye, and the courage of the people living there is truly amazing.

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1. How is it that an entire city block is in danger of being destroyed? The fact is that at the time of its construction, local construction organizations were not limited by any norms for the construction of such high-rise buildings, so their foundation went only four to five meters deep instead of the fifty that are laid down today. The matter was aggravated by the presence of a layer of clay at a 30-meter depth, which does not hold the weight of the houses well, as well as too dense placement of structures.

2. When this defect was discovered, it was already too late to fix anything, so about a hundred buildings remained standing, tilted at different angles. To be fair, one of the houses, Nuncio Malzoni, was leveled a few years ago, but this noble move cost the city $1.5 million. It was because of such a high cost that all attempts to change the situation for the better were stopped.

3. Despite the constantly looming danger of destruction of houses, people still continue to live in them.

They have long been accustomed to some specific inconveniences like uneven floors and the constant rolling of round objects, and even joke about this topic. However, the main problem for residents is the great difficulty in selling such apartments, because their value has fallen sharply due to the slope of high-rise buildings that has become visible.

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