Recovery teams have weeks to go as toll rises to 90
SURFSIDE, Fla. — Authorities searching for victims of a deadly collapse in Florida said Sunday they hope to conclude their painstaking work in the coming weeks as a team of first responders from Israel departed the site.
MiamiDade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said 90 deaths have now been confirmed in last month’s collapse of the 12story Champlain Towers South in Surfside, up from 86 a day before. Among them are 71 bodies that have been identified, she said. Some 31 people remain listed as missing.
The MiamiDade Police Department said three young children were among those recently identified.
Crews continued to search the remaining pile of rubble, peeling layer after layer of debris in search of bodies. The unrelenting search has resulted in the removal of over 14 million pounds of concrete and debris, Levine Cava said.
MiamiDade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said it was uncertain when recovery operations would be completed because it remains hard to know when the final body would be found.
When the recovery phase began Wednesday, officials were hoping it could be done within three weeks. In an interview Sunday near the site, Cominsky said it might now be as few as two weeks, based on the current pace of work.
“We were looking at a 14day to 21day time frame,” he said.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett stressed the care that rescue workers are taking in
peeling back layers of rubble in hopes of recovering not only bodies but also possessions of the victims. He said the work is so delicate that crews have found unbroken wine bottles amid the rubble.
“It doesn’t get any less difficult and finding victims, that experience doesn’t change for our search and rescue folks,” he said. “It takes a toll, but you’ve got to love the heart that
they’re putting into this and we’re very grateful.”
On Saturday night, members of the community walked along Collins Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare, to celebrate the crews that have come from across the country — and as far as Israel and Mexico — to help in the rescue, and now recovery, effort. The Israeli search and rescue team arrived in South Florida shortly after
the building collapsed on June 24 and was heading home Sunday.
Members of the crews that have been searching the site 24 hours a day since the collapse lined both sides of the street, shaking hands and bidding farewell to the Israeli team.