At least 18 people are dead and 145 people are unaccounted for after a residential building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, last Thursday.
Search and rescue teams continue to race to locate individuals. Emergency officials are also asking people to call 305-614-1819 if they have relatives who are unaccounted for.
The cause of the collapse is still unknown, but a letter sent months before the deadly collapse warned damage to the building was accelerating after a 2018 report raised concerns about structural damage.
Our live coverage has ended for the day.
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Woman whose sister is missing: "We're just trying to really hold ourselves together"
A woman whose sister has been missing since the condo collapsed Thursday said she’s in “an absolute state of shock.”
Dean added: “You know, we’re just trying to really hold ourselves together. We are in an absolute state of shock.”
“We’ve just had a hard time processing what’s actually happening and that it’s happening to us. You know, we just fear that Cassie is gone. You know, it’s really hard to swallow right now,” she said.
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Florida insurance company for condo association to offer full policy to residents in civil suit, lawyer says
From CNN's Dave Shortell
A lawyer for an insurance company for the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association said Tuesday that the company would make its entire million-dollar policy available to claimants in a class-action lawsuit filed last week against the condominium association.
In a letter filed before a Florida judge overseeing the suit, Sina Bahadoran, the lawyer, wrote that James River Insurance Company, the commercial general liability insurer for the association, “has made the decision to voluntarily tender its entire limit from the enclosed policy towards attempting to resolve all the claims in this matter.”
The insurance policy, a copy of which was included with the letter, contains limits of $1 million for each occurrence and a $2 million aggregate limit.
Justin Failoni, a senior vice president at the Florida-based insurance firm Collinsworth, Alter, Fowler & French who specializes in construction industry insurance, said that the insurance company would likely interpret the building collapse as a single occurrence, triggering the $1 million coverage.
Condominium associations typically also have umbrella or excess liability insurance policies in addition to the commercial general liability insurance, which could provide additional coverage limits.
The letter came as part of the lawsuit filed last Thursday on behalf of Manuel Drezner, who lived in unit 1009 of the tower.
A hearing in the case, which was the first civil litigation filed after the collapse, is scheduled for Thursday morning, according to Brad Sohn, who represents Drezner.
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2018 photo shows a crack in the concrete of the pool equipment room of Champlain Towers South building
From CNN’s David Shortell
2018 photo shows a crack in the concrete of the pool equipment room of Champlain Towers South building
Tom Henz
A newly obtained 2018 photograph shows the earlier stages of a crack in the concrete of the pool equipment room in the Surfside, Florida, building that collapsed last week, contrasting an image of the same room that was reportedly taken just days before the collapse and has emerged as a key piece of evidence for experts working to determine the cause of the tragedy.
The 2018 photograph, shared with CNN by Tom Henz, a mechanical engineer whose firm did an electrical and mechanical inspection of the Champlain Towers South building that year as part of its 40-year recertification process, shows a crack around the edge of a beam running along the top of the room.
Engineers and experts consulted by CNN said it appears the same crack is visible in the 2021 photograph of the room, which was published earlier this week by the Miami Herald, although its condition appears worse in the more recent photograph.
The cause of the deterioration is not clear.
After inspecting the building in 2018, engineer Frank Morabito wrote in a report that “failed waterproofing” below the pool deck was “causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas” and warned that failure to replace it in the near future would cause “concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”
A 2021 letter to the building residents from the condominium association’s president confirmed that the exponential deterioration had indeed taken place in the interim years.
“The concrete deterioration is accelerating,” wrote Jean Wodnicki, the association president. “The observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial [2018] inspection.”
The experts CNN spoke to said that the progression seen in the crack between the two images could be an indication of the deterioration caused by the waterproofing problem described by Morabito. Or, some said, the concrete around the crack could have simply fallen off during the three-year gap to reveal the deeper fissure seen in the 2021 photograph.
“It could be beneath the surface. Sometimes you have a spall and all it takes is a small wind or somebody tapping on it and it just comes right off. It’s hanging by a hair basically,” said Greg Batista, a Florida-based structural engineer and construction manager.
In the days since the building’s collapse, which has left at least 18 people dead and 145 others unaccounted for, the tower’s base has emerged as a potential point of failure. In addition to the Morabito report, two witnesses have also claimed to see the collapse begin by pool deck.
On Tuesday, a resident of the tower who escaped just before its collapse told CNN she saw the garage, which sits in part beneath the pool deck, fall first before the rest of the building. The account mirrored that of another woman, Cassondra Stratton, who told her husband in a phone call from a condo in the tower that she saw a sinkhole where the pool used to be, her husband told the Miami Herald.
Spalling, or cracking, can occur when steel reinforcements inside concrete begin to rust and expand due to exposure to air and water. Its spread is often compared to a cancer.
The engineers consulted by CNN were not in agreement that a failure in the area of the pool equipment room or around the pool deck could have caused the building’s collapse, but many noted that the damage seen in the room was likely indicative of poor maintenance throughout the whole building.
“It just generally shows what a crappy condition the concrete was in. You can draw whatever conclusions you want — that maybe the rest of the concrete was just as bad,” Levy said.
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Teams from several states activated to assist in search efforts
From CNN’s Rebekah Riess
Several states have activated their task force teams to assist with search efforts in Surfside, Florida.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted that 70 members of the state’s task force 1 will leave tonight to assist with search and rescue efforts at the site of last week’s deadly building collapse.
“It will be dangerous work. But the ability to bring closure to families and friends of the victims of this collapse is a tremendous blessing,” Wolf said. “Thank you to the men and women of PA-TF1.”
Earlier in the day, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced that the state’s task force 1 would also be deploying to Miami tomorrow morning.
Additionally, Ohio Task Force 1 announced it deployed Wednesday evening with approximately 80 members and several canine search teams, who will be assisting in the search efforts.
Indiana Task Force 1 has also been activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to respond with an 80-person search and rescue team, according to the task force.
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Officials confirm the identities of 4 additional victims in Surfside collapse, including 2 children
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and Rebekah Riess
Miami-Dade Police identified four additional victims who died in the Surfside building collapse last week in an update Wednesday night.
The victims identified include 10-year-old Lucia Guara, 4-year-old Emma Guara, 42-year-old Anaely Rodriguez, and 21-year-old Andreas Giannitsopoulos. All victims were recovered on June 30, according to police.
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Building collapse victim's son: "He wasn't just my dad, he was my best friend"
From CNN's Lauren M. Johnson and Alisha Ebrahimji
Nick Altman describes his dad Michael, 50, as a selfless man who had a love for life, racquetball, and his family.
“Every success I had I would grab my phone or drive by to see him, every troubling situation, I spoke to him right away.”
Michael would text his son twice a day to check in, once in the morning and once at night, and the morning. After the collapse, the chilling silence of his phone told Nick something was wrong.
“He was a selfless, happy person who always sees the light no matter how deep in the trenches he is,” Nick said.
Nick told CNN his dad was a dual citizen and came to the US from Costa Rica when he was four, and the condo on the 11th floor of the building had been in their family since the 1980s when it was built.
Michael was a champion racquetball player in his younger days, according to Nick, and shared that gift with his two sons, who frequently let him use his skills against them.
“Playing racquetball with my dad is one of my favorite memories,” Altman said.
“He taught me and my brother Jeffery how to play racquetball and playing games of 21 trying to beat him… we never beat him once.”
Michael was also a great friend to his neighbors in the complex. Nick said several survivors asked for him when he got to safety.
“He’s just a one-of-a-kind guy, no one can ever replace him or be like him in my life, I’ve never met someone as lovable as him,” Altman said.
Michael is survived by his sons, his parents Anita and Allen, and his sister Debbie.
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Debris and water seen gushing into Surfside condo garage moments before collapse
From CNN's Keith Allen
Adriana Sarmiento and Roberto Castillero were staying at a nearby Surfside hotel in the early hours of Thursday morning when they recorded video of debris and water gushing into the underground parking garage of the Champlain Towers South, moments before a portion of the building collapsed.
In video obtained by CNN, you can see into the parking garage from what appears to be the north side of the complex.
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Federal safety agency announces investigation into Florida building collapse
From CNNs Chris Boyette and Rebekah Riess
A National Construction Safety Team has been established to investigate the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium, James Olthoff, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, announced at a news conference Wednesday.
Olthoff said the inquiry will be a fact finding, not fault finding technical investigation and will not interfere with any ongoing search and rescue operations.
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Condo owner shares video from 2018 of water leaking from pipe in garage
Water can be seen leaking from a pipe in the building’s garage in a video provided to CNN by attorney Adam Moskowitz.
Moskowitz told CNN that his client has been complaining about things she has seen in the building for years.
Moskowitiz said his client sent a complaint to the condo association regarding water leaking into the parking garage in August 2018.
CNN does not know the conditions surrounding the leak or the video, or if and how the building responded to the complaint. It is not known if issues raised in the video played a part in last week’s collapse.
The video was not included as part of the lawsuit filed this week, but is an example of complaints that had previously been made, a spokesperson for Moskowitz told CNN.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the condo association told CNN they are not responding at this time due to pending litigation.
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Federal safety agency expected to announce investigation into Florida building collapse
From CNN's Kristen Holmes and Kaitlan Collins
A federal safety agency is expected to announce on Wednesday evening that they will launch an investigation in the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, according to a senior administration official.
After an initial assessment, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), a small agency within the Commerce Department, is expected to announce their decision during the evening news conference, alongside state and local officials. This is only the fifth time they have launched an investigation into a structural collapse since given this power after 9/11.
The investigation’s ultimate goal will be to determine the technical cause of the collapse and, if indicated, to recommend changes to building codes, standards and practices or other appropriate actions to improve the structural safety of buildings. Multiple officials warn that a thorough investigation conducted by NIST could take years to complete.
The decision comes a day before President Biden arrives at the disaster in Florida. Seven days after the Florida condo collapse, rescuers say they are scrambling to find 147 people still unaccounted for because there’s still a chance of a miracle.
Biden has called for an investigation into the collapse and an administration official confirmed any investigation would be done through NIST. The agency has been providing regular updates to the White House through the Commerce Department.
A six-person team of federal officials including scientists, structural engineers and a geotechnical engineer arrived in Florida late Sunday night to assess the condo collapse and conduct a preliminary investigation of the collapsed building’s materials, history and applicable building codes at the time the condo was built, the ground surrounding the building and numerous other factors, an agency official said.
The NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency which was founded in 1901, according to their website. NIST works to “promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.”
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Death toll rises to 18 in Surfside condo collapse
The number of deaths following the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, has grown to 18, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said this evening during a news conference.
Levine Cava added: “Our community, our nation and the world, we’re all mourning with these families who have lost loved ones and we grieve with them and we lift them up as a community and we’re so grateful for the support from all of you everywhere as we continue to big through the rubble.”
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Body of collapse victim was found with rosaries
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and John Couwels
The latest collapse victim identified, 92-year-old Hilda Noriega, was found with rosaries on her body, according to her priest, Father Juan Sosa from St. Joseph Catholic Church.
“Maybe she was saying a rosary when this happened,” Sosa said. “She’s with God.”
Sosa says Noriega was a “feisty” woman who was very independent. She walked from Champlain Towers South to church for 12:30 p.m. mass services.
Sosa said that Noriega’s final wish was to be laid to rest with her late husband.
“We are going to miss her,” Sosa said.
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Town sent condo association notice of minor violations weeks before collapse, documents show
From CNN's Curt Devine
Less than a month before the collapse of Champlain Towers South, the town of Surfside’s compliance division sent a notice to the condo’s association that listed a series of minor violations that included untrimmed hedges, a missing exit light and a malfunctioning gate, according to new documents released by the town of Surfside on Wednesday.
The May 26 notice called on the building to “comply with all aforementioned violations,” but did not mention any of the issues described in an engineer’s field survey in 2018. That report outlined “major structural damage” to a slab below the pool deck and abundant cracking in columns in the parking garage, among other issues.
A member of the condo’s board in 2018 shared that report with the town’s building official at the time, Ross Prieto, who assured residents at condo association meeting that same year the building was in “good shape,” documents show.
In May, the town sent out a series of other compliance notices to owners of individual units in the condo that described violations of lighting regulations meant to protect sea turtle hatchlings.
A spokesperson for Surfside did not immediately respond to a request for comment on why minor violations but not structural concerns were addressed in the May notices. Officials have emphasized that the cause of the collapse remains under investigation.
A notice sent by the town to the condo association in 2018 did describe “an excess of accumulated water on the pavement in the garage, possibly due to a leaky sprinkler” and noted holes in the 12th-floor stairwell wall.
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Miami Heat player visits Surfside following condo collapse
From CNN’s Camille Furst
Udonis Haslem, from the Miami Heat basketball team, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava arrive to pay their respects at a memorial to those missing from the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condo building on June 30 Surfside, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Miami Heat’s Udonis Haslem visited Surfside, Florida, where a condo partially collapsed on Thursday, to offer support to those involved in rescue efforts and to families waiting for news.
Haslem encouraged people to donate to Support Surfside, which is accepting donations to help those impacted by the collapse. He said he plans to donate as well.
Haslem added: “I’m going to do whatever I can do to be a part of the solution. To the families involved, my heart goes out. I pray for the people that are possibly still involved in it, and I pray for the families who are just waiting to hear something.”
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Attorney for residents pledges accountability for "absolute hell" caused by collapse
From CNN's Josiah Ryann
Adam Moskowitz, an attorney for residents suing Champlain Towers South Condo Board, pledged accountability for anyone responsible for the “absolute hell” caused by the building collapse.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of who is responsible,” Moskowitz told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota. “It could have been a parade of horribles. It could have been the antenna, the roofing company, it could have been the pool, it could have been a lot.”
Moskowitz said it was crucial to swiftly pursue a class action suit, even while survivors, former residents and friends and family grieve to ensure justice.
“We filed a class action lawsuit because it needs to start now,” he said. “These people need to grieve, but we need to start preserving the evidence….We need to make sure the insurance money is frozen and nobody take it, because this is just horrible.”
“The conduct is so atrocious, I’ve never seen this,” he added.
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A survivor's voicemail details the moments the condo collapsed
From CNN's Alyssa Kraus
CNN has obtained a voicemail from Raysa Rodriguez, a survivor of the Champlain Towers South collapse, that she left for her brother after she was awoken by the sounds of the building starting to come down around her.
The voicemail contains sound of the building collapsing; screams and alarms can also be heard, according to the resident’s attorney.
White House previews Biden's trip to Surfside on Thursday
From CNN's DJ Judd
White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, DC, on June 30.
CNN
White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed President Biden’s trip to Surfside, Florida, tomorrow, telling reporters in the briefing room that the President and first lady “will be thanking heroic first responders, search and rescue teams, and everyone has been working tirelessly around the clock.”
“They will also meet with families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy,” Psaki said, adding that the White House is “still finalizing” logistics of the day.
When asked if Biden plans to visit the site of the partial building collapse that left 16 dead and many unaccounted for, Psaki told reporters:
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Florida fire marshal will ask Biden for PTSD support for Surfside response officials
From CNN’s Gregory Lemos
Florida Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said he plans to ask President Biden to provide “the nation’s best mental health experts” to assist in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among response officials currently working the pile at the Champlain Towers South collapse site.
“We’re planning on appealing to the President for the best PTSD support possible for the men and women who are working in conditions that resemble more of a warzone than a normal search and rescue mission,” Patronis said in a statement Wednesday.
Patronis has previously and frequently expressed his concern about first responders’ mental health as they comb through the rubble.
Patronis noted Urban Search and Rescue teams are burning through their equipment as they work 12-hour shifts “in some of the worst conditions imaginable.”
“The rebar, the concrete and other debris, combined with the long hours these men and women are working, is tough on the equipment. These teams respond to hurricanes across the nation, so we’re working with FEMA and our Division of Emergency Management to ensure these supplies are being replenished,” Patronis said in the statement. “We want backup for the backups. Especially as we’ve got two disturbances in the Atlantic that we’re all monitoring.”
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Storms still forecast for Surfside this week
From CNN's Brandon Miller
A continuation of the wet and stormy weather is in store for the Surfside building collapse site this week.
Today and Thursday look to have the most coverage through the day with showers and thunderstorms. Friday will bring longer periods of dry/clear skies and lower rain chances through the holiday weekend.
Summer in South Florida typically brings a chance of storms every day, especially in the afternoon heat, but the current pattern is leading to an even greater coverage of rainfall and higher rain chances.
Why this matters: These storms can bring a variety of hazards including a significant amount of lightning, strong winds and torrential downfalls. These hazards can complicate search efforts and that will likely continue over the next several days with the active weather pattern.
Looking ahead to next week, all eyes are on the tropics, as a couple of tropical waves being monitored by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) for potential development could impact the weather in South Florida. The NHC currently pegs the odds of a tropical storm forming in the Atlantic over the next five days at 80%, and forecast models are hinting that the storm could pass near or over southern Florida by Tuesday.
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Search and rescue dogs are not inhibited by weather, mayor says
From CNN's Alyssa Kraus
A dog of the search and rescue personnel searches through the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida, on June 25.
David Santiago/Miami Herald/AP
During today’s press conference, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said search and rescue dogs are actively being used to locate victims in the rubble. He also said he checked in with K-9 handlers this morning in order to respond to questions from loved ones about the dogs.
“They are very, very active,” Burkett said. “We have two sets of dogs there. We have dogs that are looking for people who are alive and we have dogs that are looking for people who have passed on.”
According to the mayor, the dogs are rotated on shifts. Burkett also noted that handlers said the dogs are not inhibited by the winds and rain.
“As a matter of fact, they practice and they pick up scents from great distances,” he said. “And the winds actually — apparently the dogs are able to follow the scents to the destination. So that was good.”
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Miami-Dade fire chief says it's "absolutely still a search and rescue mission"
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky speaks during a press conference in Surfside, Florida, on June 30.
CNN
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said their mission is “absolutely still a search and rescue mission.”
He went into detail on how their process is working, noting that the large concrete slabs “are crumbling as we try to move them” and making their job more difficult.
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There are contingency plans in place if any tropical systems develop affecting Surfside, official says
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, speaks during a press conference in Surfside, Florida, on June 30.
CNN
A Florida official said there are contingency plans in place if any tropical systems develop that could affect the area of the Surfside search and rescue effort.
They are working with the state’s chief meteorologist and the National Hurricane Center to track any potential storms, said Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
A federal team will arrive later today “to augment the efforts” in Surfside in case of a storm, he said.
“The state emergency response team is extremely experienced in managing multiple disasters at one time,” he added.
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Nearly 30 organizations helping at family assistance center in Surfside
From CNN's Tina Burnside
At least 26 organizations are currently working to assist families who have been impacted by the devastating condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, according to Charles Cyrille, Miami-Dade deputy incident commander.
During a news conference on Wednesday, Cyrille said so far 30 families at the family assistance center have been assisted with needs such as mental, financial and lodging services.
Cyrille also said that they have been notified of several fraudulent GoFundMe accounts. To ensure funds are submitted to the proper agencies, visit here.
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State authorities are providing housing for Surfside residents displaced by the collapse
Florida officials said they have found housing for the condo residents displaced by the collapse as the rescue effort continues.
“The Florida Housing Finance Corporation has identified more than 120 multifamily rental developments to provide emergency housing to displaced individuals impacted by the collapse,” an official said at a news conference Wednesday.
They encouraged all individuals impacted by this disaster to visit surfsidestrength.com.
“This website provides resources for immediate emotional support and assistance,” an official said.
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Miami-Dade mayor says 16 now confirmed dead from Surfside collapse
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava speaks during a press conference in Surfside, Florida, on June 30.
CNN
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that the death toll from the collapse is now 16.
She said that 12 next of kin notifications have been completed and that there are four families still waiting to hear.
The mayor said that that the number of accounted for is 139 and the number of unaccounted is 147.
She also clarified how they are organizing the count.
The news conference is ongoing.
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NOW: Officials provide an update on Surfside collapse search effort
Authorities are holding a news conference to update the public on the search for survivors.
At least 12 people are dead and 149 people are unaccounted for after a residential building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, last Thursday.
This morning, the Commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit said search and rescue personnel found more bodies overnight. The official did not reveal how many people were found because the next-of-kin has not been notified.
Florida official emotional as he reflects on victims who moved to US "because they wanted to be Americans”
From CNN’s Gregory Lemos and Kate Conerly
Florida State Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
Source: WPLG
Florida State Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis became visibly emotional Wednesday while reflecting on the victims of the Champlain Towers South collapse who “moved to this country because they wanted to be Americans.”
Patronis said the tragedy of the collapse “carries a little bit of a different, you know, attachment because Miami is such a gateway to the greatest place in the world to live.”
He lauded the first responders on the scene who he said “are not wired to rest. They’re wired to work.”
“They feed off the passion of the profession that they signed up for,” Patronis said.
Pastor of nearby church says 20 to 25 of his parishioners are unaccounted for
From CNN's Alyssa Kraus
Rev. Juan Sosa of St. Joseph Catholic Church told CNN about 20 to 25 of his parishioners are unaccounted for after the Champlain Towers South collapsed last Thursday. The parish is only a five minute walk from the building.
Sosa said he shared many milestones with victims of the collapse. In particular, the pastor worked closely with Marcus Guara, a parishioner who has been found dead. Sosa baptized Guara’s daughter, Emma Guara, and helped his other daughter, Lucia Guara, with her first communion. The two daughters and their mother are still unaccounted for.
Sosa also said Hilda Noriega, the 12th victim found dead after the collapse, was a close member of his parish.
“I did conduct the funeral of her husband years ago. And now her son just called me this morning about the funeral that will be prepared,” the pastor said.
Throughout the past week, Sosa has provided support to the Surfside community. On Sunday, the pastor created a remembrance binder, listing the names of parishioners who are unaccounted for. Sosa told CNN he then invited the community to add the names of other victims, regardless of their religious affiliation.
“So we have a little symbol - the Paschal Candle that is lit all day until the evening that represents the resurrection of Christ for us and that we receive a baptism, as well as the flowers,” Sosa said.
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"It almost resembles the Trade Center": A first responder's first moments on scene
From CNN's Alyssa Kraus
After about 55 units of the Champlain Towers South collapsed Thursday night, a first responder arrived on scene and described what he saw.
“We have a 13 story building with most of the building gone. This is gonna be a high priority,” the first responder told dispatch.
Currently, at least 12 people are dead and 149 people are unaccounted for. Rescue teams are entering their seventh day searching the scene for victims.
Listen to what the first responder said:
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At least 2 people remain hospitalized after Surfside collapse
From CNN’s Rosa Flores and John Couwels
Six days after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building, two people remain hospitalized at Jackson Health System, according to the hospital system’s media relations manager, Lidia Amoretti-Morgado.
Jackson Health System says it doesn’t have consent to release more information about the two patients in their care.
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These are some of the challenges Surfside rescue teams are facing
From CNN's Theresa Waldrop
Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29 in Surfside, Florida.
“We’re moving debris piece by piece and searching through,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said Tuesday, describing what he called a “tedious process.”
Crews from all over the state have been helping out. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has sent assistance, and crews from Israel and Mexico are also helping.
These are some of the challenges impacting teams on the ground:
Debris is falling - The pieces of concrete the crews are dealing with are the size of basketballs and baseballs, Raide Jadallah, the assistant fire chief of operations for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said Monday. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Friday that debris is falling on crews at the site as they do their work. “We have structural engineers on site to assure that they will not be injured, but they are proceeding because they are so motivated,” Levine Cava added.
Debris is also shifting - Overnight into Tuesday, debris fell from portions of the building that remain standing, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. And workers were steering clear of a “45-foot area next to the building” because of concerns about overhanging debris from the standing portion, Cominsky said. The west side had to be cordoned off “because it was becoming excessively dangerous to work there,” Burkett said. The pile of rubble shifts as the crews work, officials said. “The situation at hand is we’re not lifting floor by floor,” Jadallah said. “We’re talking about concrete. We’re talking about steel. Every time there’s an action, there’s a reaction.” He said on Sunday as crews were looking through the rubble, a rescuer fell 25 feet down the pile of collapsed building.
There’s a lot of rubble to move - The building was 12 stories high. The crews have so far moved about 3 million pounds of concrete, Kominsky said Tuesday. “That’s over 850 cubic feet,” he said. While crews were looking for empty spaces in the rubble where survivors might be by digging in from the bottom, heavy machinery has been lifting pieces from the top. But people who were sleeping in their bedrooms when the building fell in “are under four or five meters (13 to 16 feet) of concrete,” Col. Golan Vach, the commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit that’s assisting in the search, told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday. “So this is what they’re doing right now, penetrating the concrete,” Vach said. He added that of all the places he has done similar work – Turkey, Haiti, Albania and Mexico, for example – this site is the most difficult because of the way the building pancaked in on itself.
A few fires broke out at the site - When a few fires broke out at the site over the weekend, crews had to work to get that and the smoke under control. Levine Cava said Saturday that progress had been made with the fire and smoke that was hampering the search effort.
Wind and rain can make the rescue more dangerous - It’s the rainy season in Florida, and the wind and rain only made a dangerous situation even more so, officials pointed out. Some work had to stop at times because of lightning. On Sunday, Burkett said rescuers’ luck had “seemed to turn” as far as fires and weather were concerned. Now, he said, “we just need a few more miracles each day.”
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As rescue teams enter their seventh day, here’s what we know
Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors and to recover remains in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29 in Surfside, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
After a residential building collapsed in Surfside, Florida search and rescue teams are working to find dozens of residents who are unaccounted for. As teams continue to tirelessly search the site, 149 people remain unaccounted for and 12 have been confirmed dead.
Col. Golan Vach, commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit, said search and rescue personnel found more bodies overnight. However, he would not reveal how many people were found because the next-of-kin has not been notified. “At the last 12 hours we found some more people,” Vach told CNN. “We found people. Unfortunately, they are not alive.”
Vach said first-responders discovered new tunnels in the rubble Tuesday night, which allowed for the discovery of more bodies. “These tunnels that we found right now were almost the first to be big enough to enable people to stay between them,” he told CNN. Vach said search and rescue teams were working in the space between the collapsed balconies. Teams are also looking for bedrooms buried under 13-16 feet of concrete.
Moreover, debris remains an issue for rescue teams. Overnight into Tuesday, debris fell from portions of the building that remain standing, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. In addition, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said workers were steering clear of a “45-foot area next to the building” because of concerns about overhanging debris from the standing portion.
Read more about the search and rescue efforts here.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Gregory Lemos and Alyssa Kraus contributed to this post.
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USPS safeguarding mail and packages of Surfside collapse victims
From CNN's Joe Sutton and Tina Burnside
The United States Postal Service says it is keeping all mail and packages of residents in the Surfside, Florida, building collapse in a secure location, according to a news release.
Mail and packages for residents of the Champlain Towers have been secured and are being kept safe at the Surfside Post Office at 250 95th Street, according to the release.
The postal service is also encouraging residents and businesses in the Surfside area who have not received their mail in recent days to visit their local post office.
“The U.S. Postal Service will continue to take steps to ensure we can provide reliable and safe delivery for all customers in the Surfside, FL community,” the release stated.
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This is what we know about the victims of the Surfside condo collapse
From CNN's Theresa Waldrop, Alisha Ebrahimji and Ray Sanchez
People visit a make shift memorial near the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, on Monday, June 28.
Larry Marano/Shutterstock
The dead and unaccounted for residents of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, reflected the area’s rich cultural diversity, an international tragedy that has touched members of a tight-knit Jewish community and families from as far away as Argentina, Paraguay and Colombia.
Dozens of people remained unaccounted for after the collapse of part of the 13-story residential building. Search and rescue teams have been feverishly scouring the site since shortly after 55 of the building’s 136 units fell on Thursday.
Twelve deaths had been confirmed and have been identified: Michael David Altman, 50; Marcus Joseph Guara, 52; Frank Kleiman, 55; Leon Oliwkowicz, 80; Luis Bermudez, 26; Anna Ortiz, 46; Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74; Antonio Lozano, 82; Gladys Lozano, 80; Manuel LaFont, 54; Stacie Fang, 54; and Hilda Noriega, 92.
Fang’s teenage son was pulled injured but alive from the rubble, according to family members. The Lozanos were the uncle and godmother of Phil Ferro, the chief meteorologist for CNN affiliate WSVN. Hilda Noriega was the mother of Police Chief Carlos Noriega.
Family confirms identity of 12th victim of Surfside collapse
From CNN’s Rosa Flores, Gregory Lemos, and Mel Alonso
A 12th victim of Champlain Towers South collapse has been identified.
According to a tweet from the North Bay Village Government on behalf of the Noriega family, Hilda Noriega perished in the collapse.
Hilda Noriega was 92, according to a release from the Miami-Dade Police Department.
The family expressed their gratitude to first responders and local and state leaders.
“The Noriegas have lost their ‘heart and soul’ and ‘matriarch’ of their family, but we will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for.”
The commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit told CNN Wednesday that search and rescue personnel found more bodies overnight in rubble.
A news conference at 11:30 a.m. ET in Surfside will provide an update on the latest developments in the collapse.
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"Three seconds" separated her from life and death, woman who escaped portion of collapsed condo says
From CNN's Madeline Holcombe and CNN affiliate WPLG
Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29 in Surfside, Florida.
Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
Iliana Monteagudo, 64, woke up in the middle of the night Thursday to a strange sound. Then, she saw a crack snaking down her wall.
Barefoot, she ran from her sixth floor unit down the stairs, hearing thunderous noises and climbing over several walls as she raced toward safety, according to CNN affiliate WPLG.
““The ceiling, down,” she told the affiliate. “When I see that, something inside of me said run because this building will collapse.”
Once outside she called her son to say she was OK, but that the building behind her had collapsed.
After seeing the the portion of the Surfside building his mom had called home collapsed, Monteagudo’s son told the station that the magnitude of his mother’s decision became even more apparent.
“You know when it really hit, is when I called her probably a day or two afterwards,” Alvarez said. “I said to myself, I want to call my mother and see how she is. And when I called her, it hit me. It gets me a little bit now, it hit me knowing that I could call her.”
Read more about the escapes and rescue efforts here.
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Israeli commander aiding Surfside rescue says more bodies and tunnels were discovered overnight
From CNN’s Gregory Lemos
Colonel Golan Vach, Commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit.
Source: CNN
The Commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit said search and rescue personnel found more bodies overnight in the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida.
“At the last 12 hours we found some more people,” Colonel Golan Vach, Commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit, told CNN’s John Berman on “New Day” Wednesday. “We found people. Unfortunately, they are not alive.”
Vach said first-responders discovered new tunnels in the rubble Tuesday night, which allowed for the discovery of more bodies. Vach said search and rescue teams were working in the space between the collapsed balconies.
Vach would not reveal how many people were found because the next-of-kin has not been notified.
Vach said he had “very minor” hope teams on the pile would be able to find survivors.
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Engineer explains what witness accounts of pool deck collapsing first could mean in Surfside investigation
Multiple eyewitnesses said they saw the pool deck and garage area of the Surfside condo fall before the rest of the building collapsed.
Resident Sara Nir told CNN that she heard a big boom and saw the garage collapse before she and her family ran from the building.
Another witness, Cassondra Stratton, was in her unit at Champlain Towers South when she called her husband Michael Stratton early Thursday morning, he told the Miami Herald.
According to the Herald, Stratton said she was “speaking frantically about their condo building shakng,” and told him “she saw a sinkhole where the pool out her window used to be. Then the line went dead.”
The Washington Post reported that Stratton was in her fourth-floor balcony, she felt a tremor and saw the deck of the swimming pool cave in.
If the pool deck area did collapse first, Northeastern University engineering professor Mehrdad Sasani explained what that could indicate for the investigation:
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Mother and daughter said they saw garage collapse before running from Surfside condo
From CNN’s Rebekah Riess
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Sara Nir and her daughter Chani Nir, who escaped Champlain Towers moments before the condo collapsed last week, told CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday night that they initially thought neighbors were doing construction.
Nir said she had just returned home to her two children around 12:30 a.m. ET when she started hearing “knocking sounds.”
As sounds became increasingly louder, Nir said she started to believe neighbors were doing “major construction,” and she went to speak to the building’s security guard about the early morning disturbance.
“I said, ‘do you hear the sound?’ It doesn’t make sense in the middle of the night, early morning, people doing construction,” Nir told CNN.
Nir said as she was speaking to the guard, she heard a big boom and saw the garage had collapsed. At this point, Nir said her son and daughter were standing outside of their apartment and she told them to run, believing an earthquake was taking place.
“In the moment, you’re just, you’re just shocked, you’re like, what’s going on? Like, things are just collapsing, but you don’t know, is the whole building about to collapse? You just you don’t know what’s going on,” daughter Chani Nir said.
“I said it’s not construction, it’s an earthquake, and while I was running, I told the security guy [to] call the police, pull the alarm so people will be aware about this,” Sara Nir said.
Nir said she and her children ran three or four blocks away from the building before needing to stop to catch their breath.
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Lawyers for condo resident have begun subpoenaing documents from engineering firm hired to do repairs
From CNN's David Shortell
Lawyers representing a resident of Champlain Towers South who is suing the building’s condominium association have begun the process of subpoenaing documents from an engineering firm that had been hired to complete repairs on the building after conducting a 2018 survey.
The lawyers have also formally said they intend to request documents from the condominium association pertaining to the building’s integrity and other matters, according to Brad Sohn, an attorney on the case.
Both requests for discovery — a routine step in a civil lawsuit like this — were detailed in filings before the Florida court where the class action case is being heard. They were not yet available via a public docket. Sohn provided the filing related to the engineering firm to CNN.
The suit, on behalf of Manuel Drezner who lived in unit 1009 of the tower, was filed on Thursday, making it the first civil action after the building’s collapse earlier that day.
Sohn said his firm has talked to a number of other residents of the tower in recent days who have expressed interest in joining the suit. Morabito Consultants, the engineering firm, is not a defendant in the suit, which was levied against the condominium association.
The subpoena that’s included in the filing is requesting “all documents, electronic records, and communications that refer, relate to, or concern Champlain Towers South and Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, Inc” from the engineering firm.
In the filing, the lawyers also say they intend to subpoena similar documents from the town of Surfside, Florida, where the tower that collapsed is located, as well as other companies in the south Florida area connected to the building, including contractors who studied moisture levels on the building’s roof.
Frank Moribato, the president of Morabito Consultants, found “major structural damage” to an area of concrete beneath the building’s pool deck during a 2018 inspection and was hired by the condominium association in 2019 to complete repairs.
The filing shared with CNN amounts to a notification to the court and the condominium association that Drezner, the plaintiff, is planning to issue the subpoenas. After a 10-day wait period, the subpoenas will likely be issued, giving the recipients 15 days to produce the requested documents.
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Rescue teams hold out hope as search enters 7th day
From CNN's Madeline Holcombe
Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29, in Surfside, Florida.
The condo building, Champlain Towers South, partially collapsed in the middle of the night Thursday as many residents slept. Currently, 125 people have been accounted for and 12 have been confirmed dead.
US and international teams are looking for bedrooms buried under 13 to16 feet of concrete, Col. Golan Vach, commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit said.
“There is still hope,” Vach told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “Until one week, I have a solid hope that we will find someone. After one week, it’s minor.”
Alarcon said he has no idea how long the rescue and recovery efforts will go on, especially seeing as the round-the-clock work has barely scratched the surface of removing the debris. But he said the crews were motivated by understanding the perspective of the families.
“What would I do? How hard are we going to work to save our family members if something like this were to happen?” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I just want (the families) to know that we’re doing everything we can.”
And many in the community are looking for ways they can help those impacted as well.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said that over $1.9 million has been raised to help those affected as of Tuesday, and some of those donations made to SupportSurfside.org have already been distributed to at least a dozen families in need and a handful of nonprofits.
The building’s tennis center has been transformed. Now, it functions as a respite for the first responders, and the walls are adorned with flowers and photos memorializing those who are unaccounted for and the 12 who have died.
Laura Hernandez, a babysitter, used to spend hours on that court with Graciela Cattarossi while her daughter, Stella, played with the children Henandez babysat, she told CNN affiliate WSVN. Both, along with Graciela’s parents and sister, have been reported missing.
“In September I’m going to go back with the kids, but Stella and Grace are not going to be there. It makes my heart break,” Hernandez told the station.
Those who survived the collapse have told harrowing stories of their escapes.
Iliana Monteagudo, 64, woke up in the middle of the night Thursday to a strange sound. Then, she saw a crack snaking down her wall.
Barefoot, she ran from her sixth floor unit down the stairs, hearing thunderous noises and climbing over several walls as she raced toward safety, according to CNN affiliate WPLG.
“I start going down, fast, and I hear crack, crack, crack,” she said. “I start to scream, ‘Come on God, I want to see my son, I want to see my grandson. Don’t let me die in this condition.’”
Once outside she called her son to say she was OK, but that the building behind her had collapsed.
“Three seconds separate me, the life to the death. Three seconds,” she told the station.
Sara Nir’s daughter had gone to take a shower and her son was keeping busy when Nir heard what sounded like construction noises around 1:10 a.m. She went to talk to the security guard about the noise in the night but was interrupted by a big boom and the garage collapsing.
She ran back to grab her family, she told CNN, and together they escaped. Two loud booming noises later and all they could see were white clouds from the dust.
Esther Gorfinkel, 88, was carried out of the building by neighbors as she headed slowly down the staircase.
When she told Albert Aguero, a man who carried her, that she lived a good 88 years and didn’t need to be rescued, he told her “No, you’re going to make it to your 89th birthday,” Aguero told CNN affiliate WPLG.
“I saw the sky. I knew I will be safe,” Gorfinkel said.
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Building resident says he's alive only because girlfriend persuaded him to stay with her
From CNN's Jason Hanna
Erick de Moura expected to be in his Champlain Towers South condo at the time much of it collapsed.
The only reason he wasn’t: His girlfriend persuaded him to stay with her.
De Moura and his girlfriend, Fernanda Figueiredo, say they believe he is alive because he was not in his unit in the building that collapsed early June 24 in Surfside, Florida.
“I was right at her door, about to leave. And for some reason, she just asked me to stay” in her home nearby, de Moura told CNN’s John Berman in Surfside on Tuesday morning.
De Moura was at Figueiredo’s home on the night of June 23 to watch a Copa America soccer match between his native Brazil and Colombia on TV with friends.
After the game, he got up to leave. But Figueiredo — in a situation unusual for a Wednesday night — did not have one of her children at home. He had some appointments to attend to in the morning, but she saw an opportunity for them to spend some time together, they said.
“I wanted to take a shower and sleep comfortably. But she kept insisting for me to stay,” de Moura said.
“And when I woke up at 5:30 (a.m.) to check my phone to set up my alarm to wake up for my appointment, I had some notifications” telling him something had happened, de Moura said.
