Bodies of 2 children found
Searchers will press on as death toll grows to 18
The bodies of two children were found in the rubble of the collapsed condo building in Florida, raising the death toll to 18.
SURFSIDE, Fla. – The bodies of two children were found in the rubble of the collapsed condo building outside Miami on Wednesday, raising the death toll in the disaster to 18.
The children were 4 and 10 years old, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who provided the update at an afternoon news conference. The number of missing people is now 145.
“Any loss of life, especially given the nature of this unexpected, unprecedented event, is a tragedy,” Levine Cava said. “But the loss of our children is too great to bear.
Earlier in the day, Levine Cava has said four additional victims had been identified, at the time bringing the total to 16. Search officials vowed to press on with the rescue effort around the clock despite the possibility of tropical storms approaching the area.
As families cling to fading hope, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said many have asked him when efforts will turn from a rescue to a recovery mission and wondered how long a person could survive under the heaps of rubble.
Authorities reiterated that work at the site was a search-and-rescue effort, and workers would continue sifting through the rubble, listening and looking for signs of life.
“We’re not leaving anybody behind,” Burkett said Wednesday. “This is going to go until we pull everyone out of there.”
Families have also expressed frustration over possible severe weather in the coming days that may cause further delays in massive search and rescue efforts that include hundreds of rescuers rotating in 12-hour shifts at the site. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he and first lady Jill Biden would visit the site of the collapse Thursday.
Possible severe weather in the coming days may cause delays in search and rescue efforts, Kevin Guthrie, of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Wednesday.
Guthrie said his team’s working with the National Hurricane Center and state meteorologists to develop contingency plans for severe weather, including tropical cyclones, adding that they may need to free up state assets centered at the site of the collapse in order to respond to severe weather. On Tuesday, Guthrie said the threat of severe weath
er prompted state officials to ask the federal government for the additional team.
“If a system does develop, we have a contingency plan ... of how we’ll continue to respond here while responding to the hurricane,” Guthrie said.
Two storm systems in the Atlantic may become tropical depressions in the coming days, but it’s unclear whether they may affect the U.S., according to the National Hurricane Center.
Rescue officials Tuesday afternoon sounded a horn for a second time during the day’s work, signaling for workers to temporarily evacuate for an approaching storm with lightning.