Florida Condo Update: Day 5 Of Search For Survivors As Death Toll Rises
Rescuers found another victim in the rubble from the Champlain Towers South condo collapse, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Monday. About 150 people are still missing.
Authorities continue their search as the death toll climbed to 11 without a single survivor recovered since hours after the building fell. Some family members have taken buses to a location near the scene of the incident hoping their visit would allow them to shout the names of their loved ones. Others walked side-by-side with their arms around each other as they anxiously awaited an answer as others prayed and hugged one another.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Chominsky says the rescue mission must be slow and methodical.
“We are going to work ceaselessly until we have exhausted every possible option in our search,” he said.
The rescue effort includes firefighters, sniffer dogs, and rescue experts using radar and sonar devices.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer and fire marshal, said the rescue effort is the largest deployment of such resources in the state’s history.
“They’re working around the clock, 12 hours at a time, midnight to noon to midnight,” Patronis said.
Andy Alvarez, a deputy incident commander with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said rescuers were able to find void or spaces inside the wreckage but mostly in the basement and parking garage.
“We have been able to tunnel through most of the building. This is a frantic search to see who we can bring out of this building alive," Alvarez said.
A 2018 report on the building stated that it had “major structural damage” where $9 million in repairs was needed with $3.8 million being allocated to renovate the garage, entrance, and pool. Another $3.2 million was needed for the exterior facade. “Abundant cracking and spalling” was reported for the columns, beams, and walls inside the parking garage.
The reports’ author, Frank Morabito, wrote the deterioration “would expand exponentially” if it wasn’t repaired.
Ross Perito, Surfside’s top building official at the time, met with residents assuring them the building “was in good shape” and later emailed the town’s manager saying the meeting “went very well.”
Greg Schlesinger, a lawyer and former general contractor who specializes in construction failure cases, said it was clear the issues listed in the 2018 report caused the building to collapse.
Families have since created a makeshift memorial a block away from the site featuring “missing” posters of their loved ones hung on chain-link fences with flowers laying beside them.
The cause of the collapse is still under investigation.
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