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Rescue efforts continue following the partial collapse of a building in Surfside, Florida, early Thursday.
Here’s what we know:
The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crew that is responding to the partially collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, are very well trained individuals who have previously responded to disasters in countries such as Haiti and Mexico, CNN’s Rosa Flores reports.
An official explained the work these workers are undertaking to CNN.
“This type of work is so dangerous and so painstaking, they literally move inch by inch. They move a piece of rubble. They’re working with structural engineers to shore up the building, to build tunnels to go into the building, to listen for signs of life,” Flores added.
At different points of their search and rescue operation, crews do an “all stop” to listen for signs of life.
“But there are a lot of challenges, though. This is a residential building. So, as you might imagine, the pipes have burst. There are fumes. There’s gas. There’s, also, vehicles. So, there is a lot that they are dealing with as they are trying to find signs of life.”
Florida remains under a state of emergency after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Thursday night to provide assistance for the families impacted by the collapse of Champlain Towers in Surfside.
The declaration allows all necessary resources to be diverted to the area including law enforcement and other emergency personnel, the order said.
President Joe Biden also approved the declaration, which gave FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security the power “to coordinate all disaster relief efforts,” according to a White House press release.
At least one person died in the collapse, 37 people were pulled from the rubble and at least 99 people still remain unaccounted for.
Authorities from several countries in Latin America have confirmed that nationals from their respective countries resided or were in the building in Surfside, Florida, that collapsed early Thursday.
Here is the breakdown:
Paraguay: 6 nationals missing, including Paraguayan First Lady Silvana López Moreira’s sister, brother-in-law and their three children.
Colombia: 6 nationals resided in the building.
Venezuela: 6 nationals are missing.
Argentina: 9 nationals are missing.
Uruguay: 3 citizens are missing.
Dave Downey, the former Miami-Dade fire chief, helped explain how first responders are searching for survivors.
What authorities are doing: Downey said the department has an “established process” for dealing with a collapse. They also have “highly trained” search personnel who are part of a national urban search and rescue team, based locally.
What tools first responders are using: Downey said they’re employing dogs, cameras that fit into small spaces, and listening devices.
Why rescuers aren’t using big, heavy equipment like cranes: Authorities are likely worried about the structural integrity of the rubble, Downey said.
Charles Kesl, the commissioner of Surfside, said he has hope that more people can be rescued from the rubble of the partially collapsed building in his community, but “realistically, I’m not sure how many or if anyone will be recovered and found alive.”
Engineers were in the condo in previous days: Kesl said he was particularly frustrated because the building was already being scrutinized by engineers as part of its 40-year recertification process.
Kesl said authorities need to investigate the collapse, and though the process will be methodical, “time is of the essence” in case investigators find something that would require them to inspect some of the other condominiums near the coastline.
The search for survivors in the partial building collapse will continue furiously overnight, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said.
It’s been about 21 hours since the disaster, but Burkett said he’s hopeful that first responders can still save people trapped in the rubble. Burkett said the rain may complicate efforts, but authorities will “keep going.”
However, Burkett said right now is not the time to speculate or investigate the cause because authorities are laser-focused on the rescue effort.
A Jewish rabbi who leads a temple just a block away from the partially collapsed condominium in Surfside, Florida tonight says he has felt the presence of God even in tragedy as rescue workers search for more than 99 unaccounted people.
“People want to know… ‘why did God allow it?’” said Rabbi Eliot Pearlson, who has a number of his congregates among the missing.
“God is with each and every one of us, especially when we reach out to people when they are in pain and suffering,” he said. “What did I feel? I felt a tremendous amount of solace and comfort knowing that so many people care about one another… it was an amazing thing in a time of tremendous suffering.”
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue District Chief Jason Richard told CNN that as rescuers move into the rubble pile, structural engineers are working to determine which spaces are safe to go into and where additional shoring and other materials are needed to make sure the building doesn’t shift or come down onto rescuers.
Richard said the search started on top of the rubble, rescuing people who were lightly trapped. Then the search moved to areas where they could hear noises, with firefighters following the noises and rescuing people calling out for help. The search then moved to the parking garage.
Richard said rescuers are using dogs from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department and Florida Task Force One, as well as listening devices to search for survivors. Crews also stop and call out into the rubble pile, listening for any sounds, tapping, or voices.
“So occasionally we’ll stop all of our operations, and just have everybody go silent and listen,” Richard told CNN. “That, in conjunction with the dogs moving about the rubble pile, constantly, as well as listening devices. We have cameras that we can bore holes into slabs of concrete and put into other small void spaces in order to see around corners and in small areas also.”
According to Richard, even though it is a “pancake” collapse, as the slabs of concrete slide and move towards the ground, they do create voids.
“So we are hopeful that we will find patients in those spaces and we have identified voids and those are the areas that we’re focusing our efforts,” he said.
Depending on where they are searching and the intensity of work, firefighters can be on shift for 15 minutes or less, Richard said. In the parking garage, for example, shifts are less than 15 minutes due to water, fumes, and other elements at the location.
Right now, there are about 30 firefighters in rotation doing search and rescue, according to the deputy chief.
Among the dozens of people unaccounted for following the building collapse in Surfside is Judy Spiegel whose husband Kevin called “an amazing person.”
Alongside Kevin was his son Josh who said they have not received any updates on their mother’s whereabouts yet.
“They’ve come and told us how many people are unaccounted for and that they have teams underground searching for people. But we don’t have any other information other than that,” Josh Spiegel said. “We’re very proud and we’re very hopeful that the community here will be able to find our loved ones. And I just want to say that my mom is an absolutely amazing person. She’s a fighter and she fights for every single one of us, and we won’t stop until, we won’t stop fighting until we find her.”
Watch here:
Search and rescue operations will continue throughout the night at the collapse Champlain Towers condo building, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a briefing.
She said that 99 people are still missing and 102 people have been accounted for. One fatality has been reported.
The mayor said that firefighters are working around the clock above and below the collapse site, adding that they “are so motivated to bring people out safely and return them to their loved ones.”
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz thanked first responders and said that it is still all hands on deck, with local, state and federal resources being brought in to help with the disaster.
“This is a tragedy without precedent,” Wasserman Schultz said at the briefing.
Wasserman Schultz said the community is multi-cultural and they are working with families abroad to make sure they will be able to get visas processed to see their loved ones if needed.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also thanked first responders and volunteers, adding that “they are really doing a world class job.”
Officials are planning a news conference for Friday morning at 8 a.m, the mayor said.
State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis told CNN that rescuers are still searching nonstop for any survivors in the rubble of the condo building that collapsed.
Patronis said the men and women are working in 15-minute shifts carrying 80 pounds worth of gear, protective equipment and concrete saws that have to be used manually because of the unstable building.
Patronis said task forces from around the state are coming Friday morning to help back up the crews that have been working nonstop on the rescue since early this morning.
“They are not going to stop until every life that can be saved is saved,” he said.
Kenneth Direktor, an attorney for the association of residents at the Champlain Towers South condo, said the building had “thorough engineering inspections over the last several months” in preparation for compliance with a 40-year certification.
Direktor told CNN an engineer had already conducted inspections to determine needed repairs, but the only repair that had actually commenced was a replacement of the roof.
Asked how he would describe the building’s condition, Direktor said, “the building was in the condition you would expect for a building that is 40 years old, that is located on the Atlantic Ocean.”
Though he added that “the building has been maintained over its existence.”
Direktor said he has not spoken to the engineer who performed these inspections, and he understands that that individual has been appointed by the city to work on the investigation of the collapse.
Watch here:
Pablo Rodriguez, whose mother and grandmother are among at least 99 missing, said his mother called him to report “creaking noises” she heard a day before the building collapsed.
“It was like a comment that she made off-hand, like that’s why she woke up and she wasn’t able to go back to sleep afterwards,” he said. “…Now, in hindsight, you always wonder.”
Rodriguez said he is holding out hope for the lives of his family members, but that given the nature of the collapse it is increasingly difficult as time passes.
“We are not exactly hopeful,” he said. “…You always hold out hope, until you definitively know but after seeing the video of the collapse, it’s increasingly difficult, because they were in that section that was pancaked in.”
Rodriguez then described how his family had just begin to emerge from the hardships presented by Covid-19 when disaster struck again.
“Waves of devastation with troughs of disbelieve,” he said, describing his feelings throughout today. “One second you are overwhelmed… and then another you get a semblance of normalcy because… This doesn’t happen. Buildings don’t just collapse. It’s not real. So it’s been like that all day.”
Watch here:
A local Florida rabbi today called for caring and empathy, even as number of his congregates remain among the missing in the partial building collapse in Surfside, Florida.
“This is something that transcends our capacity for understanding,” said Rabbi Sholom Lipskar of the Shul of Bal Harbour.
Lipskar then praised the community response so far, saying the “outpouring of caring, empathy, love, in the community, has been unprecedented, on any level.”
“The way we help them is by just pouring kindness and empathy and being there where we don’t leave them there for a moment, alone,” he said of all those impacted by the disaster.
Watch here:
Shimon Wdowinski, a professor with Florida International University’s Institute of Environment, told CNN he determined in a study last year that the Champlain Towers South condo showed signs of sinking in the 1990s.
The condo had a subsidence rate of about two millimeters a year from 1993 to 1999, according to his study.
While Wdowinski said that this sinking alone would likely not cause the condo’s collapse, he said it could be a contributing factor.
“If one part of the building moves with respect to the other, that could cause some tension and cracks,” he explained.
He added that that sinking was unique to the area of Champlain Towers South, not surrounding buildings. He said subsidence over larger areas was detected in western Miami Beach, which was constructed on reclaimed wetland.
Wdowinski’s study was first reported by USA Today.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Thursday night to provide assistance for the families impacted by the collapse of Champlain Towers in Surfside.
At least one person died in the collapse, 37 people were pulled from the rubble and at least 99 people still remain unaccounted for, CNN reported.
The state of emergency declaration will allow all necessary resources to be diverted to the area including law enforcement and other emergency personnel, the order said.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN that though there is a need to find out why the building collapse happened, the focus is on finding people.
“Today is not that day,” he said Thursday. “Today is the day to save lives and so we are 100% focused on that.”
Burkett said that they have support from all over the country.
“We’re not lacking for resources, we’re lacking for a little good luck,” he said.
Burkett said he was thankful for the first responders who arrived around 2 a.m. on Thursday morning and ran into the building that they were told was in imminent danger of collapsing.
“That’s the silver lining in this very, very dark cloud. We have some heroes on our hands, and we have got a lot of work to do,” Burkett added, vowing to not stop until they find all the people they can that are alive.
Watch here:
Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez described the site of the partial condominium collapse as “absolutely devastating.”
Nuñez said she visited the site earlier today and that “what you see there in the rubble in the pictures and TV doesn’t do it justice.”
She went on to say that the first responders are still in search and rescue mode, and will remain that way for a few days.
Some context: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has not announced an emergency order, which would allow for a federal response.
Nuñez told CNN that DeSantis is “reviewing it as we speak,” and that “right now there has been no unmet need from the county to the state.”
