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Three more victims of the building collapse in Surfside have been identified, the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a news release Saturday night.
They were identified as Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; and Manuel LaFont, 54.
Antonio and Gladys Lozano lived in apartment 903, with Antonio Lozano recovered Thursday and his wife recovered Friday, according to the news release.
LaFont lived in apartment 804 and was recovered Friday, the release said.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a Saturday evening news conference that five deaths had been confirmed.
Authorities previously identified Stacie Fang, 54, as one of the victims. The fifth victim has not been identified.
“Rescue workers have been working around the clock as they continue their search and rescue efforts,” the news release said. “This unexpected tragedy has affected many families, loved ones, and our entire community. The Miami-Dade Police Department is committed to honoring and supporting all those affected during this very difficult and emotional process.”
Evacuations for residents in Champlain Towers North and East are voluntary following the collapse of Champlain Towers South, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at a Saturday night news conference.
The mayor said a Surfside building official did a cursory review of the structure at Champlain Towers North and East and “didn’t find anything that was out of order.”
“So that’s reassuring, but that is not a deep dive,” he added. “We are going to do a very deep dive into why this building fell down. And I imagine that is going to end up being a very sort of comprehensive project.”
He said he was made aware Saturday of the 2018 report detailing structural issues.
After speaking with other officials, the decision was made to give residents the information so they can make the decision on whether to relocate. They are working with FEMA on relocation options.
Burkett said he spoke with the White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, as well as Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and has received tremendous support from everyone.
Crews are continuing to utilize their “aggressive search-and-rescue strategy” after human remains were found Saturday, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said at a Saturday night news conference.
Cominsky said fire crews were able to contain the fire that had caused smoke issues during rescue efforts around 10:30 a.m.
They are continuing to search the entire debris field, separated into multiple sections, he said.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said rescuers are using a grid approach to search the pile and they continue to utilize sonar, cameras and K-9 resources.
They have minimized the use of heavy equipment today, she said.
US Sen. Marco Rubio said the State Department and other federal resources are on site providing assistance.
Five people are now confirmed dead from the building collapse in Surfside after search teams found another body Saturday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at an evening news briefing.
Three of the five victims have been identified, Levine Cava said. Their names are not being released out of respect for the families, she said.
Officials are depending on DNA testing to make identifications, according to Levine Cava.
“The process of identifying these victims is very difficult,” she said. “We’re going to be relying on DNA testing, and that is why we’ve already been gathering DNA samples from the family members. So they have all participated and provided DNA to assist us in the investigation.”
This will allow for rapid DNA testing, which helped in identifying the three bodies found in the rubble, according to the mayor.
“As well, our search has revealed some human remains,” she added.
There are now 130 people accounted for and 156 unaccounted for, according to Levine Cava.
“Our top priority continues to be search and rescue and saving any lives that we can,” she said.
Morabito Consultants, a structural engineering firm, said in a statement issued Saturday afternoon it completed a report in 2018 that “detailed significant cracks and breaks in the concrete” at Champlain Towers South and provided an estimate of costs to “make the extensive and necessary repairs.”
CNN previously reported that the report noted major structural damage.
Champlain Towers South Condominium Association hired the firm again in June 2020 to prepare a building repair plan for the 40-year recertification, according to the statement.
Morabito Consultants provides only engineering consulting services, not repair or restoration contracting, the statement said.
“We are deeply troubled by this building collapse and are working closely with the investigating authorities to understand why the structure failed. As we do so, we also continue to pray for all those impacted by this tragic event,” the firm said in the statement.
Morabito Consultants has nearly four decades of experience providing services for building structures, including high-rises, residential and commercial buildings, as well as educational and health care facilities, according to the statement.
Daniel Groves was on vacation with his family in Surfside, staying on the second floor of a hotel next to the Champlain Towers when the collapse happened.
The family was “dead asleep” when the collapse occurred around 1:20 a.m., he said.
“It literally sounded like a bomb going off, like it was the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” Groves told CNN. “The whole building shook. I mean, I felt like we were in the worst earthquake in my life.”
“It shook very violently,” he added.
Groves said he opened the curtains of his hotel room and couldn’t see past more than four to five feet, but noticed a big crack in the glass where debris had hit. He said he thought they were in a tornado and began yelling at his wife to get up just as alarms began to sound in the building.
He and his wife grabbed their children, ages 3 and 7, leaving all their belongings behind and ran a few blocks away. Groves then took a video of the immediate aftermath of the collapse, still unsure of what had happened. The video shows the pile of rubble and debris littering the area.
“The scariest thing. I thought a tornado literally just hit and they just said no, the building is gone,” he is heard saying in the video.
He and his family have since gone to Disney to try to “get a little joy” following the tragedy.
“It’s not real good. My kids are really shook,” Groves said. “Toilet flushes, my kids are screaming. … A bell on the elevator dings, my kids hold their ears. I don’t know what the long-term effects are going to be.”
An emergency mobile command center from Florida’s Escambia County is being deployed to aid in the recovery and rescue efforts of the Champlain Towers South condo collapse.
The command center, known as THOR, is scheduled to leave Sunday morning at the request of the state, the county’s emergency management team said in a news release Saturday afternoon. An emergency management employee will also be deployed with THOR for 10 days.
The mobile command post offers 1,000 square feet of working space, according to the news release. It has a 44-kilowatt generator with 72 hours of fuel on board as well as dual air conditioning units.
“The situation in which we have to use this resource is very unfortunate,” Eric Gilmore, Escambia County’s interim public safety director, said in a statement. “We are proud to assist our partners in any way we can.”
Escambia County is in northwest Florida, on the border with Alabama.
Magaly “Maggie” Ramsey told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer her mother Magaly Delgado, who is among the missing in the Champlain Towers South condo collapse, had raised concerns about work being done on other buildings having possible impacts on her building.
Ramsey said her mother didn’t really complain about her building but had raised concerns about ongoing assessments as well as tremors from the construction of a new building nearby.
“I will say that when the other building beside it, which is relatively new, was being built she did complain of a lot of tremors and things that were being done to the other building that she sometimes was concerned what may be happening to her building that might be putting it at risk as a result,” Ramsey explained.
Delgado came from Cuba and made her way to “live her best life” by the water in the Champlain Towers, where she had lived on the ninth floor for more than 10 years, according to Ramsey.
“She loved the building, she loved the community,” she said.
The last time Ramsey spoke to her mother was about a surgery Ramsey had recently had. She missed her call Wednesday night and thought she would just give her a call back in the morning, but she never got the opportunity, she told CNN.
Ramsey said she learned of the collapse on the news.
“Other than this horrible thing going on right now, the worst thing is not to know,” she said. “Knowing, whatever the outcome may be, you hope that they didn’t suffer if something did occur. But knowing is a little bit healing in itself.”
As scores of family members wait to hear about their missing loved ones following the partial building collapse in Surfside, supporters continue to gather around the site to help any way they can.
Here’s a look at those efforts:
Rescue workers are digging through rubble and debris looking for signs of life after Thursday morning’s building collapse in the town of Surfside, just north of Miami, Florida.
Around 1:30 a.m., an estimated 55 condominiums fell to the ground, most of them with residents asleep inside.
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 some of the organizations featured, click here:
CNN’s Impact Your World Team will continue to provide ways to support as opportunities become available.
Gil Guerra and his wife Betty Guerra lived on the ninth floor of the Surfside, Florida, condominium building that partially collapsed on Thursday, his daughter told CNN.
Michelle Guerra said that they haven’t gotten any word on her dad and stepmom since the collapse.
Guerra said they were in the process of moving out of their home and had just gotten furniture at their new apartment on Monday.
The couple were renting and she said the owner was in the process of selling the unit.
Guerra said she last spoke to her dad on Father’s Day and saw him in person on May 16 at her nephew’s first birthday party.
Josh Spiegel, whose mother Judy Spiegel is missing, said his family is “just trying to keep it together” as they wait for rescue updates from the Surfside building collapse.
Rachel Spiegel, daughter of Judy Spiegel, said that she is “very concerned.”
She described her mother as “the best person in the world. She’s so caring and loving. She loves my kids.”
Rachel Spiegel said that one of her daughters offered to help find her grandma, because “she’s really good at playing hide and seek, so she’s probably hiding in her house. Can I go there with you? I know where she hides.”
Judy Spiegel’s husband was not in the building at the time of the collapse.
“My heart breaks for my dad, but at the same time, I’m just so thankful that he wasn’t there, too. You know, obviously, the thought of losing my mom, who is my rock and my best friend and everything is the most awful thing, but I don’t really know if I would be standing if I lost two,” Rachel Spiegel said.
“I’ve never seen so much pain in all my family’s eyes, and my heart is shattered,” Josh Spiegel said.
The family is asking for as much help as possible as they continue to await to hear news about Judy Spiegel.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that rescue crews are continuing to face “incredible difficulties” due to an ongoing fire under the rubble.
Cava detailed that the smoke from the fire “spread laterally throughout the pile” making it difficult to isolate the source and stop it.
The mayor also noted that rescue teams have created a trench to try and isolate the fire and continue to search for victims.
“We’re using everything possible to address this fire. We are using infrared technology. We’re using foam. We’re using water. All the tactics that we can to contain the fire and minimize the smoke spread,” Cava said.
Cava added: “Obviously, the smoke itself is the biggest barrier right now to proceeding in those areas. So, we created a trench using heavy equipment to try to isolate the fire and continue searching for victims in the part of the pile that we can access. No further victims have been found.”
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said no other victims have been found in the rubble following the partial building collapse in Surfside, she said this morning during a news conference.
Cava added: “To the community and the world, please be patient. Please stand with us. Please continue your prayers. We are not going to stop. We need your support.”
The town of Surfside issued a permit for roof repairs on the Champlain Towers South condo building the day before the structure collapsed, documents released Friday night show.
On June 23, the town issued a permit to “install roof safety anchors and provide stucco repairs” to a South Florida concrete company. The work included removing “the existing roof down to concrete deck” and replacing it, the permit said.
The building fell the next day, in the early morning hours of June 24.
The company that was set to perform the work, Concrete Protection and Restoration LLC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
The town issued two other permits for work at the building last month, for electrical repair and “roof repair.” It’s unclear whether work had begun on those permits before the collapse. Both contractors declined to comment to CNN.
Another document produced as part of the 2018 structural engineer’s report also noted that small portions of the building were “showing distress.” The report, conducted by engineer Frank Morabito for the building’s condo association, noted that about “2% of exterior columns have experienced concrete spalling” and about “5% of the balcony structural floor slabs showed hairline cracking at underside of the slab,” among other examples of cracking.
It’s unclear whether these issues contributed to the collapse.
The report says the “general alignment” of the structure, as well as the concrete framing, roof membrane, and several other parts of the building, were in good condition.
Surfside officials noted in the document that the report “was not formally submitted” to town officials by the condo association, but said Morabito provided it to the town after the building collapse.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to speak at this news conference scheduled for 10:30 a.m. ET.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN that he has not seen the 2018 structural field survey report, which raised concerns about structural damage to the Champlain Towers’ South, but said it’s “unclear right now exactly what was going on in that building.”
“I can’t speak to that [report] because I haven’t seen that; I’m going to get a copy of that this morning and take a look at it so I can give out accurate information regarding that,” Burkett told CNN. “I understand from our building official, that it was in the form of the 2018 email that came from an engineer regarding those cracks.”
Burkett said it’s still “unclear what steps the building was taking to address those cracks” mentioned in the report.
According to the mayor, “the 40-year report had not been submitted yet.”
“We had indications that it was on the way because it needed to be submitted within this year,” said Burkett.
The report indicated that the engineer found no sign of immediate danger, CNN reported.
Watch the interview here:
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN on Saturday that he has recommended residents of Champlain Towers’ North Tower to evacuate out of “an abundance of caution.”
The Champlain North tower is located a block away from the South Tower, which collapsed Thursday.
“Because I don’t think people need to live with the possibility, or the thought that their” building may collapse, Burkett added.
“It had the same developer, it probably had the same materials, they probably had the same plans, and people are asking me is the building safe, and I can’t tell them it is safe,” Burkett said.
President Biden is set to receive updates from his homeland security team this weekend on the collapsed condo building near Miami Beach, according to White House officials.
Biden is spending Saturday and Sunday with family at Camp David, but officials say he’ll receive briefings each day over the phone and from a traveling national security adviser, Yohannes Abraham.
Biden has been following developments closely and has told aides to provide whatever assistance the state needs, including mortuary facilities if bodies begin emerging from the rubble.
White House officials believe a potential trip to Florida for Biden to visit families and the site is still a way off, as the same resources being used in the recovery efforts (fire and police departments) would be needed for a presidential visit.
Earlier: Biden spoke Friday with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after signing a federal emergency declaration for Miami-Dade County, which freed up money and resources to assist in recovery efforts. A White House official said Biden signed the order very soon after receiving it late Thursday.
The phone call was professional and focused on providing Florida the help it needs, the official said.
The emergency declaration authorizes FEMA to coordinate relief efforts and provide equipment to assist with debris removal. The agency has deployed an Incident Management Assistance Team to Florida and two FEMA search and rescue teams are on site. They have also provided building science experts, according to the White House.
A team of White House officials, led by homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood Randall, has been keeping tabs on the incident from Washington.
When asked about the reporting that in 2018 there was an inspection done of the Surfside building that collapsed showing there were cracks in the structure that required fixing, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said “we are going to get to the bottom of what happened at this particular building.”
Cava said search and rescue teams continue “working feverishly,” and are “leaving no stone unturned.”
“They are telling us that they are pushing forward because they do believe they could still find people in the rubble, alive. So we are on the search phase and that is our sole focus,” Cava added.
