Almost 160 people are unaccounted for Friday, a day after a 12-story beachfront condominium building just north of Miami collapsed, killing at least four people.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed the increased missing and death toll at a Friday news conference and said the first responders were still searching for any signs of life.
“We will continue search and rescue because we still have hope that we will find people alive,” Levine Cava said.
A wing of the residential building in Surfside, Florida, came down with a roar around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. On video footage captured from nearby, the center of the building appeared to fall first, with a section nearest the ocean teetering and coming down seconds later as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighborhood.
“We sent the best people from FEMA down there,” President Joe Biden said in Friday afternoon remarks. He promised federal help with housing and — if needed — a mortuary. “It’s a tough, tough time. There’s so many people waiting.”
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told USA TODAY the rescue efforts will continue “until we pull everybody we can out of that rubble.”
“We will not stop. You can count on us to continue this search until we find every person who’s alive in that rubble.”
Some major developments:
►As of Friday afternoon, 127 people have been accounted for, 159 are unaccounted for and four are dead, Levine Cava said.
►Relatives issued a statement identifying one of the deceased as Stacie Fang. Her son, Jonah Handler, was rescued from the rubble hours after the collapse.
►Rescues crews encountered the three additional deaths while working overnight, Miami-Dade Fire official Raide Jadallah said. Rescuers are using light machinery to tunnel through the rubble underneath, and crews have heard sounds, though it’s unclear what they were, he said.
►Gov. Ron DeSantis said he spoke Friday with Biden about the ongoing search and rescue effort and called for a “definitive explanation” as to what caused the collapse. He said at the moment the focus is still on the possibility that survivors could be found.
►President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency authorizing funding and other disaster relief to Surfside. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was sending support, Levine Cava said.
►The first lawsuit, seeking $5 million in damages for the victims of the condo collapse, was filed late Thursday.
►A study published in 2020 found the building was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s.
The building: See what the Champlain Towers South looked like before, after collapse
Here’s what we know right now:
Rescue crews use cranes, hands to clear rubble
Crews working systematically to clear the debris of the collapsed condo building and search for any signs of life picked through the rubble with their hands Friday afternoon.
Heavy machinery was also removing larger pieces of the building. Rain also soaked the crews on and off throughout the morning, turning heavy by afternoon. The smell of smoke was strong near a news media staging area.
“These first responders are going in through tunnels. They’re working from the top. they’re working rom the bottom. This has to be done very, very carefully,” Levine Cava said at an afternoon news conference.
Jadallah said 130 firefighters were on the scene and more resources were expected. “We do not have a resource problem, we have a luck problem,” Burkett said.
“Debris is falling on them as they do their work. We have structural engineers on-site to ensure that they will not be injured, but they are proceeding because they are so motivated and they are taking extraordinary risk on the site every day,” Levine Cava said earlier in the day.
Federal scientists, engineers heading to Surfside
Federal scientists and engineers will head to Champlain Towers South to determine whether federal officials should conduct a full investigation, said Jennifer Huergo, spokeswoman for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Huergo said the team of six will arrive by Sunday and begin work immediately without interfering with search and rescue operations.
The federal agency was given more authority to investigate building collapses after several buildings fell in the 9/11 terror attacks. The standards institute also had a role in investigating other events, including a deadly Kansas City hotel walkway collapse and a deadly Rhode Island nightclub fire.
It could take several days to determine whether to conduct a full investigation. If it does, the organization would try to determine the technical causes of the collapse and recommend changes to building codes or practices, Huergo said.
