Death and injury follow in wake of
What must be one of the greatest human tragedies in the history of George began unfolding at 75 Victoria Street at 14:09 on Monday 6 May, when the multi-storey Neo Victoria apartment building, which was still under construction, imploded in the blink of an eye. Seventy-five construction workers were buried under metres of rubble and tons of concrete in an instant.
By 15:00 on Wednesday afternoon, 36 people had been retrieved of whom seven were declared deceased, 16 were in a critical condition, six had life-threatening injuries and seven had minor injuries. A total of 39 were still unaccounted for.
By this afternoon, Thursday 9 May, a critical point will have been reached when 72 hours have lapsed after the implosion and the chance of finding people alive under the rubble becomes slim.
The implosion set off a race against time to save lives in a situation that seemed near-impossible. The first emergency call was received at 14:14, mere minutes after the building tumbled down, and Disaster Services teams from George and the Garden Route District Municipality as well as police members were dispatched to begin the mammoth rescue operation. Garden Route
District Municipality established a joint operations centre (JOC).
Before midnight on Monday, rescue teams from the City of Cape Town, Breede Valley Disaster Services, Overstrand and Western
Cape Provincial Disaster Services started arriving. By that time, the local rescue teams had managed to retrieve 23 people from under the rubble, two of whom were declared deceased.
By Tuesday the emergency staff on site had increased to more than 200, with members of Search and Rescue South Africa (Sarza) among them. Police sniffer dogs were also brought in, as were excavators and specialised rescue equipment from Mossel Bay and Cape Town.
An agonising and uncertain wait began for relatives and loved ones of the trapped workers who were being accommodated in the banqueting hall of the George Civic Centre. Volunteer counsellors and social workers from the Department of Social Services and Correctional Services are providing support at the hall.
As the hours crept by, rescue workers pressed on, ignoring fatigue, stretched to physical and emotional limits by the mammoth but delicate task of working through piles of concrete and rubble to reach trapped workers. Chief director of Western Cape Provincial Disaster Services Colin Deiner explained that their starting point was to identify pockets of live workers who could be heard from underneath the rubble. Efforts to release them were concentrated in those spots. Some of the trapped individuals were able to communicate with the outside world via cellphone, others would cry from
beneath or tap on the concrete in response to rescue workers' shouts.
The dogs then came in to verify if there is someone before high-tech equipment is used to pinpoint their position.
With every extraction of a live person comes an intense emotional relief after indescribable hours of tension and at times spontaneous clapping of hands would follow.
Premier in George
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and
Local Government and Development Planning MEC Anton Bredell had arrived on Monday night to witness the rescue operations first-hand. Winde said on Tuesday that everything humanly possible would be done to determine the cause of the collapse.
George Mayor Leon van Wyk expressed his sincere condolences on behalf of George Council and the municipal administration to the family and colleagues of the deceased.
"Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected who continue to wait on word of their loved ones."
Neo Victoria apartment building, which was still under construction, imploded in the blink of an eye. Onlookers stand aghast moments after the incident.
15:00
28 people have been removed from the rubble, leaving 47 people unaccounted for.
20:00
Death toll now at 7. More than 200 emergency services personnel continue rescue efforts. 33 people have been removed; 42 people are unaccounted for.