RESCUE Death toll in condo collapse rises to 20

Search continues in rubble as hurricane looms in forecast

Rescue teams discovered two more victims of the Surfside condo collapse overnight, raising the death toll to 20 as first responders continued the search amid the threats of shifting rubble underfoot, falling debris overhead and a hurricane in the forecast.

One of the two victims found Thursday night was the 7-year-old daughter of a City of Miami firefighter, Miami-dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a press briefing on Friday. She did not provide details on the second body recovered from the rubble of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South.

Though every day since the disaster has been difficult for families of the missing and rescuers working in 12-hour shifts, Levine Cava said, Thursday’s discovery was especially tough.

“Last night was uniquely different,” she said. “It was truly different and more difficult for our first responders.”

Thunderstorms and intermittent downpours have destabilized the precarious pile where rescuers hope to find survivors. But cracks and shifting debris in the unstable wing of the tower still standing forced search and rescue teams to pause their work for 15 hours on Thursday while structural engineers determined it was safe to dig again.

The pause exasperated families of the missing, some of whom asked emergency managers on Friday morning if they could confirm media accounts that rescuers had heard voices in the rubble.

Miami-dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said that search-and-rescue teams have not heard a voice or human sounds in the rubble since the morning of the collapse on June 24, according to a video of the private meeting posted on social media Friday.

Jadallah said rescuers worked hard to reach the woman but were unable to do so, and that the team’s failure to save her life had caused them mental anguish.

“Nothing has changed regarding the voices,” he said. “The last voice we heard was approximately 10-11 a.m. that morning, the day of the incident.”

“The only person we heard that we could not get out was that woman. … We did not hear any other voice. We did not hear additional sounds.”

With thunderstorms and more rain likely in the forecast Friday, rescue teams continued the search but they were limited to scouring about one third of the pile on the east side of the site. Loose concrete on the upper floors of the standing structure posed too big a risk to rescuers below, said structural engineer Scott Nacheman, a forensic architect and structural expert with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Debris in the pile and debris in the building has been displaced,” Nacheman said. The building itself has not moved, he said.

Levine Cava said Thursday that search and rescue remains a priority, but that the county is “planning for the likely demolition of the building.”

Nacheman said if the structure is demolished, it won’t be for several weeks.