At 5 a.m. on the morning of March 10, a small crowd of FIU students, faculty, and local residents joined a handful of politicians and media outlets in West Miami to watch slow moving support vehicles lift a 950-ton pedestrian bridge into place above SW 8th Street.
Among the crowd was Leonor Flores, her husband Henry Flores, and their two daughters Michelle and Gabriela.
Flores is an engineer and project executive for Munilla Construction Management (MCM), one of the 2 construction companies that designed and built the pedestrian bridge.
A writer for FIU News website explained that Flores wanted to “share her work” with her daughters, especially Michelle, 12, who had an interest in engineering, math and science.
Said Leonor: “It’s very important for me as a woman and an engineer to be able to promote that to my daughter, because I think women have a different perspective. We’re able to put in an artistic touch and we’re able to build, too.”
The article was a great human interest story about a wife and mother who also happens to be an engineer who, readers assumed, had a hand in making the fancy bridge a reality.
But it was all a lie — PR fluff to promote FIU and MCM as progressive and inclusive workplaces.
Within hours after the bridge was reduced to rubble on Thursday afternoon, FIU’s website updated the article to clarify that “Flores did not work on the FIU-Sweetwater UniversityCity Bridge project in any capacity.”
Skeptical commenters noted that the FIU News writer gave every indication that Flores worked on the bridge project.
The writer stated right there in paragraph 2:
“[Flores] was excited to share her work with her family, especially Michelle, who is interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) in school.”
And again in paragraph 3:
“Michelle said she might want to follow in her parents’ footsteps and go to FIU when the time comes, and that it was fascinating to see her mom’s work in action.”
Karen Cochrane, who is connected with the university — hopped in the comments to clarify that Flores was “one of the spectators” in the community who was interviewed because of “her work in general as an engineer.”
But not everyone was convinced that Flores was “just a spectator”.
Commenter “Jezel” writes:
“Thanks for the reply Karen! I’m a bit confused though. How was she sharing her “general work as an engineer” at a project that she did not contribute to?”
Cochrane replied:
“The writer was trying to communicate that Leonor, as an engineer, works on projects similar in scope. Leonor did not work on this project.”
Another reader, “Johnny Journalist”, called Cochrane out on her hypocrisy.
“More like you wanted to work in some feminist angle into the article and had to be misleading in order to make it look like it wasn’t completely irrelevant to the story. There would be no other reason to misrepresent her as being involved in the project (which you clearly did).”
Before the bridge disintegrated, the school and MCM shamelessly flaunted Flores and other female engineers to promote their diversity and inclusion agenda.
Hours after @WeAreMCM deleted a tweet showing a picture of Flores and her family watching the bridge swing into place, the company deleted its entire Twitter account — along with all the other false flag tweets suggesting women engineers played a role in building a bridge that once again divides a community.
RIP to the victims of this tragedy.
RIP, indeed. And fast healing to those injured. That’s all I’ve got.
“the FIU News writer gave every indication that Flores worked on the bridge project.”
————-
This looks like a case of political correctness that came back to bite them.
Lawd, here we go again this morning. *chucks up Deuces*
corruption!
I don’t believe her….
I’m not really impressed with the sensationalism surrounding this tragic event. As an engineer, I’m more interested in an incident investigation, accountability of those that did wrong and lessons learned to be shared in the engineering community. Only thing worse than one bridge collapsing is another bridge collapsing. And most of all, RIP to the victims.
You still believe anything that Sandra posts?
This one is just about saving face.
It’s funny because I haven’t seen any other website corroborate Sandy’s initial post.
This one is just about saving face.
Same here.
Although my degree is in chemical engineering I want to know what happened, but with so many high profile individuals involved including a sitting U.S. Senator who has presidential ambitions we will probably never know the entire truth.
We always go looking to blame someone. Most of these companies are white men who use minorities to get the contract. It doesn’t matter who they are trying to blame. They all getting sued.
I’m a chem e too!! nice to meet ya
First Parkland and now this.
Florida must have some bad karma.
I see a lot of lawsuits filed but no one admitting blame then all will be forgotten within a year or so.
It’s so exhausting reading all the negativity surrounding this incident. There’s bound to be an error involving anything man-made. There are plenty of professionals accountable for this devastation. To just single out the female engineers is reaching.
I’m awaiting to read further on the investigative reports and future preventive solutions to assure this never happens again.
This is just so tragic. Whichever company built this bridge should never be allowed to build another thing again. They should be shut down permanently. There is no excuse to justify this tragedy…
Everyone and their mama, is running for cover now. Nobody wants to own this. They all better lawyer up, cause the blame game is on! What a careless and reckless tragedy…SMH
Yes they do have bad karma…. decades of complete bigotry from North to South. And then there’s Trayvon!!!
Funny how women want to prove they are ‘just as capable’ as men to do construction and engineering work, but then when there is a problem they all run and hide.
Agreed. The person that approved the opening of the bridge should be hung out to dry. What inspectors approved this? What city official(s) thought this was appropriate?
Oh god.. what a load of shit. In Florida? What the fk do you mean “use minorities” . The stupid is strong here.
Trayvon? What?
The takeaway for me is: When cracks are noticed in the foundation the day before the collapse, that’s probably a bad sign. And actually, the bridge was deemed safe hours before its collapse.
Have to say, Florida has never appealed to me.
Yep! That’s what happens when people lack morals and honesty. They all were proud to be involved with chest stuck out at first. Now look, not one of them are willing to step forward and admit to any wrong doing. Careless and reckless tragedy is spot on. This shouldn’t have ever happened. Shame on all of them.
I started in civil engineering but switched to IT. I hope my daughter chooses a Stem career. Its not for everyone but if you have the aptitude go for it…gender is irrelevant
like MEN, STFU and pay for some, clearly you don’t get it for free. Trolling all these posts, there is NOT one weaker B*tch here than YOU. Let me guess, it is your mother’s fault?
The bridge was not open to the public. It was scheduled to open next year.
distance distance distance, i would fly far far away and say i ain’t neva met not a nan one of these other heifers
When frontin amd hastaggin goes wrong.
Right but she would surely take all the credit if that bridge didn’t fall down and kill people
“Bridge to Globalist Future” collapses and kills innocent people, designed by a ‘dream team’ of agenda pushing women.
A more effective picture of our future demise I could not find.
She already was taking credit.
But you are right.
“pay for some” what?
I don’t speak ebonics, you need to clarify your stance on the position of which you take.
How were those ppl crushed in cars? The area should have been closed to cars as well. Ppl can’t walk on the bridge, but ppl can drive under it? ?
Those architects and engineers that built the bridge without proper support and without letting the cement cure and those that gave the final OK without proper testing should take responsibility. They won’t. They should all get sued.
there are always INSPECTORS involved.
Architects likely have the original plans… I wonder if someone modified plans for cheaper construction costs?
Gender is still relevant in IT. Perhaps it is because males continue to outnumber females.
Marred by his killing and the acquittal of that POS that killed him
“The Florida Department of Transportation announced the agency was warned about cracking in the Florida International University pedestrian bridge, two days before it collapsed, but they didn’t listen to the voicemail.” ABC news. It sounds like this is the Florida DOT summary involvement in this disaster. They should have been at the forefront of any road construction and not have to rely on some voicemail notification that there is a problem.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/97d3d183d2fc0ab5ce21f6dbcd72a1389dc41dd6da376392386e76fd287b899c.gif
Perhaps if the women are running and hiding… they have learned the behavior from the “capable” males.
Someone should have sent inspectors ASAP.
Ugh… people lost their lives as a result of this failure.
I told you Sandra they was gonna back peddle and try divert the issues on men. People loves positive attention but hate the negative criticism.
The truth is that now that there has been a failure, all the media that once purported that the bridge was designed and engineered by an “All Women” team has been deleted and retracted.
It seems sad that female engineers would take credit for work they didn’t do!
I don’t want my name attached if I did not participate!
It takes hard work to become an engineer… no matter which type!
There’s more to this story!
And then, Obama’s DOJ stepped in and:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-officials-close-investigation-death-trayvon-martin
So if a guy jumps on you and beats you, you have the right to allow him to beat you and not defend yourself?
OK – Got it.
lmao!
im sure walmart will be selling bridges soon
Gtfoh. The only people who still say mess like that are racists. Go somewhere with that mess. That little boy wasnt beating up on that fat ass man. Foh with that
EXACTLY!!!
Yes, that “little boy” was beating that man’s head on the sidewalk. Don’t want to risk being shot, don’t attack a man and beat his head on the sidewalk.
Ok and you’re racist! So, all points are made.
I read elsewhere, (http://sandrarose.com/2018/03/diversity-fail-women-engineering-team-behind-collapse-miami-pedestrian-bridge/
the bridge design was dependent upon the suspension cables and a center structural support that were not yet installed.
-“But the cables and the center column had not been installed”- : if true, this was not error but gross incompetence leading to catastrophic failure, loss of life and severe injury-actions of complete wreckless foolishness. To say; anything man-made is bound to have “an error”, is missing the point. Catastrophic failure on new construction is not “error”. Besides, it was, according to pre-failure reports, proudly, woman-made.
My reference to “man-made” error is directed to possible “design flaws to fabrication flubs to installation issues” which could lead to your point of gross incompetence of all involved.
I am not in the engineering field; therefore, I don’t know the major undertakings or procedures involved in constructing a bridge. But, it’s obvious it takes great teamwork, expertise, and due diligence to have a successful work.
Why does it matter who outnumbers who?
Women outnumber men in health care and hairdressers.
Men outnumber women in surgeons.
Gay men are significantly overrepresented among male hairdressers. And so on.
How about we stop fixating on this crap, stop counting dicks and twats?? How about, idk, we start judging people by how qualified they are???
Wrong. For example, the design may be completely sound, but incorrect materials were used. How about we let investigators do their job before we embark on witch hunts?
It’s not a Witch Hunt. And it’s not wrong. People lost their lives because of mismanagement,
someone cutting corners, subpar materials being used – whatever. The bottom line here is that there is no justifiable excuse for this to have happened.
The first person going down is the safety inspector then project manager, then anyone that has their signature to the project. LOL I be pulling a Enron right now shred shred shred.
Yes it’s wrong to claim that design is flawed when it is not known yet.
Too true.
What is known is that the bridge collapsed. That makes it flawed. Whether it was design, cheap materials, engineer incompetence. The whole thing is flawed or it would still be up and those lives would not be lost.
Hmmmm. I work in this industry and best believe its not gonna be good.
Miami is a third world spick infested hell hole.
Tragic.
OOPS, run away from it!!!
Bet she can get away from that %&* bridge fast enough!
The responsible person is the on site manager who allowed traffic to continue flowing under it while tension cables were being tightened/stressed. That was reckless.
I suspect the collapse was due to faulty engineering and construction caused by unqualified minority firms and Democrat cronies hired through Obama-era affirmative action.
It will all come out in the impending lawsuits. In the real world, money will ALWAYS trump political correctness. Miss Flores better have money saved away for a good lawyer.
I know, that was painful to read.
STFU, that card has no meaning. Traythug got exactly what he deserved for jumping GZ…a dirt nap.
????
Censorship is never warranted.
So we have a new “Women’s Day”.
Both FIGG and MCM enjoy political influence thanks to generous political donations. The five Munilla brothers are actually big-time GOP donors. They have given over $500,000 to multiple political campaigns, including Rep Diaz-Balart and Senator Rubio. Miami-Dade Mayor Giminez has 2 sons working for MCM. One of them is a lobbyist for MCM. In turn, they have won bids on a number of government projects around South Florida. These articles highlight the cronyism. They address the cronyism, and show a breakdown of the donations. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article205425354.html ; http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/munilla-family-firm-behind-collapsed-fiu-bridge-are-major-miami-political-players-10176950
Another reason to start disallowing nepotism and people hiring their longtime HS and college friends in on Fed contracts.
Don’t worry. These people are in full control, they’ll just blow up a transformer and sue your utility like
#ThomasFire
They’re part of the cartel..
I’m sure you’d encourage her to employ your coy wink as well, correct? She’ll do quite well won’t she.
the apple don’t fall far from the tree https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c03c20ddd14d51f51dc6a5bdb5844aee5e7ecaa2f304c069cbaacdf05dc87c17.gif
But Kathy, how can you sleep at night knowing that women make up a mere 10% of the workforce when it comes to workplace deaths? We need to balance this out, for equality!
anything *woman-made.
Nobody is ‘just’ singling out the female engineers for the failure, the company responsible, the university, and plenty of media, were all singling out all the engineers – the ‘all female’ team – before it failed. Let the credit go to those who claimed it.
I take it you never watched the trial or viewed any of the evidence then.
The link is right there in the article, with everything accurately quoted.
Ok thanks Sandra. It only took you four days to respond.
No problem, sir. ?
I can’t sleep since I learned that in Korean War, 99.9945% of US military dead were men. They deny us any possibility to die for our country!
r u sane? xD you are sayin the women want die in the war they cant even carry a dead body , sorry for you
The suspension cables for the final bridge are not part of the primary structural support – they are for vibration damping and aesthestics. This bridge design is NOT a suspension bridge, it is a truss bridge. Most truss bridge designs do not have redundancy — if a single truss element fails, the whole bridge collapses.(reference: 2013 Skagit River Bridge/Seattle. An oversized load hit a truss, and the entire section of the bridge fell)
Don’t forget to demolish the building holding all those records. Might have to fly a plane or two into some buildings nearby to draw everyone’s attention.
Censorship is sometimes warranted.
people forget the government law and the law of the universe do not mix very well, Chilling place for an example of education at it’s best as advertised fails spectacularly killing multiple folks
yep government fails at everything it touches, all of this was pre approved! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bad214023f019ddae7da63ee6105c6a2c80fab26d22c79661d4ab16b711e8368.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e25cb8a383841925e2d1bd0543e6cde9a43f51b81a94b440297877600586bf7.jpg
This is what happens when you don’t hire because of qualifications. Instead they were hired due to minority status. Doesn’t surprise.
Obamasucks True. They changed the story real fast when the bridge failed
Lady_Elle You are very defensive. Men would not get media attention because they worked on a bridge because of their gender. Now the bridge has failed, the story has changed.
I do not believe her. There was no backlash to media before the bridge collapse. Now that the bridge has failed now the story has changed. Just like many women, who destroy things at the helm. Kathleen Kennedy destroyed Star wars. Look at Youtube, Look at Yahoo.