Search teams persevere in Florida condo collapse
SURFSIDE, Fla. — As the death toll rose to nine with more than 150 people still missing, rescue teams on Sunday kept picking through the rubble of the Florida condo building that collapsed Thursday, as questions swirled about the tower’s structural integrity.
Officials in Surfside, the shore town near Miami where the building stood along the oceanfront, said hope remained that search teams would discover survivors in air pockets that may have formed in the pancaked debris.
Even so, Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said on Sunday crews had yet to find any signs of life.
“The biggest thing now is hope,” Cominsky said. “That’s what’s driving us. It’s an extremely difficult situation.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at all times six to eight squads were working on the multistorey pile of shattered concrete and metal wreckage that lay next to the parts of Champlain Towers South that remain standing.
The searchers — including experts sent by Israel and Mexico — are using dogs, sonar, drones and infrared scanners.
“Hundreds of team members are on standby to rotate as we need a fresh start,”
Levine Cava said at a briefing in which she announced the death toll had risen to nine. “So, we are not lacking any personnel, but we have the best, we have the right people and the right number, and we are getting it done.”
A smoldering fire beneath the rubble that produced thick smoke and hindered the work of rescuers has abated, officials said. The mayor said a trench was dug to separate the areas of smoking debris from the rest of the rubble and rescuers are also using tunnels.
Some families of those missing have provided DNA samples to officials while others recounted narrow escapes. Police released the names of four victims who ranged in age from 54 to 83.
Photographs of the missing were posted on a nearby fence, along with flowers and messages. On Saturday, family members prayed and kept a silent vigil at a barrier erected on the beach by authorities several hundred yards north of the building site. They declined to comment.
Some residents remain in Champlain Towers North, a sister building to the one that collapsed, where only a voluntary evacuation order has been issued. An inspector did not find any immediately obvious problems with the other building.
Officials said on Saturday that Miami-Dade County would audit all buildings more than 40 years old within the next 30 days to ensure their safety.
Surfside officials have released documents including an engineer’s report from 2018 that found major structural damage beneath the pool deck and “concrete deterioration” in the underground parking garage of the 12-storey condominium.