The 40-year-old building in the town of Surfside collapsed on Thursday night, trapping dozens of sleeping tenants under the debris. As of Saturday, four people were confirmed dead, while over 150 others are still missing.
"Though some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion," Morabito wrote in the 2018 report, as quoted by The New York Times.
The flaw that the engineer specifically pointed out was that the building allowed cars to drive in next to a pool deck at the ground level with failing waterproofing, which he said was "causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas."
His recommendations reportedly prompted the building management to shape plans for a multimillion-dollar repair project, but the implementation failed to anticipate the deadly collapse.
According to the newspaper, Champlain Towers South residents have raised concerns about the building's safety in the past. In 2015, one of them filed a lawsuit, saying that water got into her flat because of an external crack. Others reportedly complained about the harmful effect of explosion works in the building next to it.