Discovery Announces WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE & SUPPLY CHAIN Specials

One revelation from the pandemic has been that systems in place for decades can fail when they are pushed to their limits. The prevalence of empty shelves in stores, and daily news stories about barges with goods stuck offshore highlight a supply chain that can no longer serve the globe. And a catastrophic building disaster in the midst of the pandemic brings to light a variety of dangers - from weather and erosion to outdated construction standards.

Discovery explores how critical infrastructure failures can lead to catastrophic disasters, inflation, a lack of necessities and a host of other problems that affect day to day life.

Using startling security footage, 911 calls, eyewitness accounts and CGI technology, Discovery sheds light on what happened during the sudden collapse of the condominium building Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, the possible causes and what can be done to prevent this from ever happening in the future.

And in a three-episode limited series, Discovery will pull back the curtain on the complexities of the global supply chain explaining how factors like canal blockages and labor shortages caused by the pandemic have had a domino effect on getting products and food on the shelves and fuel into our cars.

On June 24, 2021, at around 1:24am, the Champlain Towers South, a 12-story residential building in Surfside, Florida, collapsed in less than 12 seconds. In the aftermath of this tragedy and with millions of people living in similar apartment complexes across the country, teams of investigators are searching for answers to what went wrong. Through eyewitness accounts, dramatic user-generated footage, news archive and CGI animation, this special pieces together a moment-by-moment account of the disaster, recounts the rescue and recovery efforts and explores factors that could have contributed to the building collapsing. Did a sinkhole cause the collapse? Was the building's design flawed? Could the constant exposure to the elements or poor maintenance be responsible? Or could this be a perfect storm of issues that caused the collapse? The program will premiere on December 4.

We have grown accustomed to walking into stores filled with packed shelves, gasoline available at every station and our online purchases arriving on time. But the pandemic has impacted every step of the supply chain, from manufacturing, to shipping worldwide, to transporting within a country, and even to stocking shelves. This limited series explores the complex shipping system at its best and how it has broken down - leaving goods stranded at docks and consumers panic shopping before holiday shortages ruin the upcoming season. The program will premiere on December 17.

Watch the opening of "When Buildings Collapse" here: