Search continues after Surfside building collapse

The Miami-Dade Police Department has identified three more victims of the Champlain Towers South condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida.

According to MDPD, 76-year-old Nancy Kress Levin, 52-year-old Jay Kleiman, and 67-year-old Francis Fernandez, were recovered from the rubble Monday.

The number of deceased now stands at 36, with 29 individuals having been identified.

CNN’s Rosa Flores reported from the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse site as search and rescue teams continue to race to find individuals in the rubble. This is the first time CNN has gotten this close to the collapsed building.

There are about 200 search and rescue personnel on the site right now, Flores said.

“They are very carefully sifting through this rubble. They only bring and use the heavy machinery when they feel it’s safe. First, before that happens, every single piece of this rubble that they come in contact with, they methodically analyze their movements, because any movement could be catastrophic,” Flores explained.

Crews recovered four more bodies Tuesday, bringing the condo collapse death toll to 36, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at an evening news conference. There are 109 “reports of people who are potentially unaccounted for,” the mayor said.

Watch Flores’ reporting on the ground:

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04:06 - Source: cnn

Crews were forced to pause for about two hours earlier this afternoon because of lightning and some gusts of wind that went above 30 miles per hour with Tropical Storm Elsa approaching, the mayor said.

Levine Cava said a meteorologist has been embedded with rescue crews, staying with them on the rubble mound to provide any weather updates and to make sure they are safe.

CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Eric Levenson, Amanda Watts and Rebekah Riess contributed reporting to this post. 

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett announced on Tuesday evening, that he has drafted a letter, which will go out as soon as tomorrow, advising all of Surfside’s oceanfront condo boards and building owners of the steps that the city’s expert engineer and building official believe should be taken as a “minimum stopgap measure” to provide residents with a basic level of confidence that their building is not obviously unsafe.

“This is clearly only an interim step until we get the final results from NIST, which may not be known for quite a while,” Burkett said. 

“The town of Surfside is committed to doing everything it can to ensure the safety and peace of mind of its residents and we are grateful to our county, state, and federal partners for all their amazing support,” the mayor added.

Debris being gathered at the Surfside collapse site is “all evidentiary debris,” according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. It is being sorted on site, and any objects that can be distinguished are put in certain bins and labeled as to their exact location, the mayor said.

The debris is then taken to a site for additional sorting. Miami-Dade County has a warehouse where the debris will be stored in Miami-Dade Police custody until the county has the time to complete an investigation, according to Levine Cava.

According to Mayor Levine Cava, the county has created a form for family members to document their belongings, which will be an active part of the investigation.

“The families are not reviewing what’s come out of the site at this time, but we have photographs, they have their information, and as we move forward, we’ll be attempting to do matching and releasing it to them as soon as we can, given the active investigation,” the mayor said.

Despite rain and the other adverse conditions, search and rescue teams at the Surfside collapse site have recovered four additional victims, bringing the number of confirmed deaths to 36, with 109 people who are potentially unaccounted for, according to Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Search and rescue continued their operation today, but were forced to pause for about two hours earlier this afternoon because of lightning and some gusts of wind that went above 30 miles per hour with Tropical Storm Elsa approaching, Levine Cava said. 

To protect the safety of our first responders a meteorologist has been embedded in the team, staying with them on the rubble mound to provide any weather updates and to make sure crews are safe, according to the mayor.

Levine Cava also noted, that earlier this afternoon, President Biden called her to check in on the community and to ensure that the federal government is continuing to do everything that it can to provide needed support.

Judge Michael Hanzman

The Florida judge overseeing a group of civil lawsuits filed against the Champlain Towers South condominium board asked the plaintiff lawyers involved in the cases to consider working pro bono as they seek to win a payout for their clients, a mix of residents of the collapsed tower and family members of victims. 

Hanzman said he would consider allowing for attorney’s fees and a “reasonable compensation” to be awarded to the lawyers from any funds won in the case if a pro bono agreement were to be reached.

The issue is expected to come up again at a follow-up hearing on Wednesday morning.

The death toll at the site of the Champlain Towers South has risen to 32 after four additional bodies were found in the rubble. The victims range in age from 4 to 92-years-old.

Since the building collapsed, search and rescue teams have worked tirelessly to find the other 113 people who still remain unaccounted for.

Here’s what we know so far:

The victims:

Search and rescue:

The investigation:

Read more updates on the condo collapse here.

As search and rescue teams continue to look for survivors at the Champlain Towers South collapse site, officials on the ground are monitoring the conditions of Tropical Storm Elsa.

So long as wind gusts stay below 45 miles per hour, search and rescue teams can continue looking for signs of life, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue spokesperson Erika Benitez. Benitez says that if gusts reach 45 miles an hour, rescue teams are called off the pile. 

Remember: Surfside is not in Elsa’s forecast cone, but the area is expected to get wind gusts and strong showers throughout the day. 

The uncle of a 15-year-old who survived the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida, called the man who found the teenager in the rubble to thank him. 

Nicholas Balboa told CNN Tuesday that he heard 15-year-old Jonah Handler, screaming under the rubble after the condo building collapsed. Balboa was not in the building when it collapsed, but was staying nearby. 

According to Balboa, Jonah’s uncle, who is his mother’s brother, reached out to Balboa on June 28 on Facebook and also called him to say “thank you” for saving his nephew. 

Balboa said he told the uncle, “Sorry I couldn’t get to his sister faster.”

Balboa said Jonah’s uncle told him his nephew was out of the hospital with only minor injuries. 

Balboa said he has not spoken to Jonah and there were no plans in the works to meet, saying he wants to give the 15-year-old time and space.

Since the collapse, Balboa says he has replayed that moment in his mind many times, wondering what he could have done differently to save more people, he told CNN over the phone Tuesday. 

“I wish I had had different shoes on,” he said.

Read more about their story here.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky speaks at a press conference in Surfside, Florida, on Saturday, June 26.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said they are not finding any positive signs in regard to voids or livable spaces as rescue workers continue to search the rubble left behind after the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida. 

Cominsky said, “we’re definitely searching,” adding “unfortunately we’re not seeing anything positive.”

Teams continue to search “as aggressive as we can to see if we can assist with the families and locate individuals,” he said. 

None of the search grids have been fully cleared, he said.

“With this type of collapse and that pancake, there are several layers of floors per se, that would be sub-terrain,” he said. “We’ve definitely de-layered several, several floors, but each grid is different.” 

“The magnitude of this collapse and the way the building collapsed in certain areas,” varies across the collapse site, adding, “We’ve been able to go through floors lower in one grid per se, than in the other.”  

Cominsky said no search and rescue workers have received major injuries over the last 13 days, though several have experienced dehydration. Earlier in the news conference, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said cooling stations had been brought in to “provide relief from the ongoing heat.”  

As search and rescue operations continue, families are losing hope of finding their loved ones alive.

Bernardo Camou Font said his sister, Gabriela Camou Font, 64, is one of the residents who remains unaccounted for in the Surfside, Florida collapse. Font told CNN he has recently lost hope of finding his sister alive.

“I should be sincere. I had hope for the first week; but after the first week I lost hope,” Font said.

Font brought a yellow poster board filled with pictures of his sister to the growing memorial wall of the victims. Holding back tears, he said he wanted to add photos of his sister after finding them in an album.

“This is Gabriela riding a horse,” Font said. He continued, pointing to pictures of his sister at school, at church and with her siblings.

Font said he traveled to Surfside from Uruguay to say goodbye to his sister.

With the sound of heavy machinery sifting through the rubble in the background, he broke down and began to cry.

“She’s hearing me. I know she’s hearing me,” he said. “My sister Gabriela… Pray for me. She’s already up there. Pray for me. And pray for all that love you. For all of us that love you.”

Rescue workers move a stretcher containing recovered remains at the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building, in Surfside on July 5.

Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescue crews have removed 5 million pounds of debris from the Champlain Towers South collapse site in Surfside, Florida. 

At a Tuesday news conference, Cominsky said teams have “been able to remove 124 tons of debris, which is equivalent now to 5 million pounds of debris off the pile.”  

The chief said workers paused one time overnight due to inclement weather in the area. 

More federal partners have arrived in Surfside at the Champlain Towers South collapse site to investigate why the building collapsed. 

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said along with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) partners from, “the US Geological Survey and National Science Foundation are also sending additional staff.”

Speaking during a Tuesday news conference, Levine Cava said “NIST, our federal partner, continues to work closely with the structural specialists, with detectives, and the fire rescue crews on site, as the evidence gathering process is well underway.”  

Given the “rough terrain of the pile,” LiDAR scanners — which means Light Detection and Ranging — are working so they can “better analyze the debris,” she said. “All this evidence will be critical to the NIST eventual fact-finding report.” 

The mayor said work does briefly pause on the rubble if lightning strikes within 2.5 miles of the area. 

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said wind gusts and strong showers from Tropical Storm Elsa are expected in Surfside today as search and rescue efforts continue at the collapsed condo site.

Remember: Surfside is not in Elsa’s forecast cone, but the area is expected to get rain throughout the day.

Levine Cava said that search and rescue teams continued working overnight through “extremely adverse and challenging conditions,” pausing at one point because of lightning.

She also said that cooling stations closer to the site have been set up as a respite from the heat, and county buses have been provided for workers to take breaks from the wind.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said four more victims have been found by the search and rescue teams, bringing the total number of confirmed deaths to 32.

Miami-Dade Police will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. ET, where officials will provide updates on search and rescue operations at the site of Champlain Towers South.

Search and rescue efforts in Surfside, Florida, are approaching the two-week mark. At least 28 people dead and 117 people are still unaccounted for.

Officials are also monitoring Tropical Storm Elsa as it heads toward Florida, potentially impacting rescue operations.

Read more about search and rescue efforts here.

Search and rescue efforts at the site of a Florida condo building collapse have grown even more urgent as a tropical storm barrels toward the state, threatening to challenge crews with downpours and the possibility of tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Elsa has not hit Florida at full force yet, but the rain has begun falling. Despite the weather conditions, responders on site were seen putting on biohazard suits and continuing the search.

Remember: Surfside is not in Elsa’s forecast cone, but the area is expected to get rain throughout the day.

Here’s a look at Elsa’s latest forecast past:

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said during a Monday evening press conference that he has just come from the site in the afternoon family briefing, adding that the “site is busier and more active now than I have seen it since we began.” 

Late Sunday, the rest of the collapsed building was demolished in an effort expand search and rescue operations in the rubble.

“The equipment is now fully engaged and able to navigate over the entire site where before they were very limited. Operation seems to be moving much faster and will continue 24 hours a day for the indefinite future until everybody is pulled out of that site,” he added. 

Dust cover flowers and pictures at the Surfside wall of hope & memorial in Surfside, Florida, on July 5.

Rescue workers continue to dig through rubble and debris looking after the partial collapse of a building in the town of Surfside, just north of Miami, Florida. 

As families wait in agony for updates on missing loved ones, there are ways you can ensure they don’t face this situation alone. Organizations are on the ground to help.

Here is how you can support them — even from miles away. To donate to organizations featured click here.

Donate money or personal care items

Provide meals

Assist with transportation

Support emotional wellness