Miami Condo Collapse Live Updates: Rescue Mission Ends at Condo Site

Video

transcript

Back

transcript

Officials Will End Search Efforts After Condominium Collapse

Officials in Florida said after two weeks of searching for victims they would shift their focus to recovery efforts after assessing that no survivors would be found.

It is with deep, profound sadness that this afternoon, I’m able to share that we made the extremely difficult decision to transition from operation search and rescue to recovery. It’s now been exactly two weeks since Champlain Towers South collapsed, and over the last 14 days you all know that our search and rescue teams from our local community, from around Florida, from around the country and in fact, around the world have been digging through this collapse. They’ve used every possible strategy and every piece of technology available to them. And through these efforts, we have recovered eight more victims, so the total number of confirmed deaths is now at 54. 33 of those victims have been identified, and 33 next-of-kin notifications have been made. At this time, 200 people have been accounted for and 86 people are potentially unaccounted for. So please join me in praying for those we have lost and those we are mourning.

For two weeks, crews from around the world have scoured the rubble of the Champlain Towers South, an oceanfront condominium complex in Surfside, Fla., that inexplicably collapsed in the middle of the night. They have recovered dozens of bodies, moved tons of concrete and salvaged precious family heirlooms.

But beginning on Thursday, they are no longer looking for survivors.

After long resisting abandoning a search-and-rescue effort, officials made the announcement on Wednesday, when the death toll rose to 54 with the discovery of 18 more bodies. There had been no signs of life in the wreckage since the hours immediately after much of the building tumbled down on June 24.

“At this point,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County said, “we have truly exhausted every option available to us in the search-and-rescue mission.”

One relative of a victim said rescue officials had clung to hope that the demolition of the remainder of the building on Sunday would lead to the discovery of survivors in a stairwell or perhaps in basement areas, in the voids between cars.

Instead, he said, “There was nothing. It was all rubble, and crushed. Nothing.”

Rescue teams had come from all over Florida, as well as Texas, Israel and Mexico, driven on by the anguish of onlooking family members who yelled out the names of their missing loved ones and stories of unlikely survivals from disasters past. The work was grueling and dangerous, with fires that burned in the rubble and the constant possibility of mounds of debris giving way.

As workers continued this week to look for pockets in the debris where survivors might be found, the prospect of finding anyone alive grew increasingly unlikely.

“Just based on the facts, there’s zero chance of survival,” Assistant Chief Ray Jadallah of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue told families in a private briefing.

Eighty-six people were still classified as missing.

It could take months for investigators to determine precisely why a significant portion of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., collapsed without warning last month. But there are already some clues about potential reasons, including design or construction flaws, for the disaster.

Engineers who have visited the wreckage or viewed photos of it say that damaged columns at the building’s base may have less steel reinforcement than was originally planned. Even if there was a shortfall, some experts said it was unlikely to be the primary cause of the collapse.

Florida has some of the country’s strictest regulations on high-rise buildings, where coveted oceanfront views bring the sun, rain, wind and salty air that can cause structural damage. But the rules are not always enforced, with compliance sometimes taking years longer than required.

The condo board at the Champlain Towers South had for years struggled to convince homeowners to pay special assessments of up to $200,000 in order to begin major renovation projects. Delayed maintenance is an issue for homeowners’ associations around the country, with residents often hoping that future owners will pick up the tab for infrastructure repairs.

In the initial days after the collapse, experts began focusing on the bottom levels of the building where an initial failure could have set off a structural avalanche. Three years before the collapse, a consultant found evidence of “major structural damage” to the concrete slab below the pool deck and “abundant” cracking and crumbling of the columns, beams and walls of the parking garage.

Stacie Dawn Fang, 54, was the first victim identified in the condo collapse. She was the mother of Jonah Handler, a 15-year-old boy who was pulled alive from the rubble in a dramatic rescue as he begged rescuers, “Please don’t leave me.”

Antonio Lozano, 83, and Gladys Lozano, 79, were confirmed dead by Mr. Lozano’s nephew, Phil Ferro, the chief meteorologist on WSVN Channel 7 in Miami. Mr. Ferro wrote on Instagram: “They were such beautiful people. May they rest in peace.”

Luis Andres Bermudez, 26, lived with his mother, Ana Ortiz, 46, and stepfather, Frank Kleiman, 55. Mr. Bermudez’s father confirmed his son’s death on social media, writing in Spanish: “My Luiyo. You gave me everything … I will miss you all of my life. We’ll see each other soon. I will never leave you alone.”

Manuel LaFont, 54, was a businessman who worked with Latin American companies. His former wife, Adriana LaFont, described him as “the best dad.” Mr. LaFont’s son, 10, and daughter, 13, were with Ms. LaFont when the building collapsed.

Andreas Giannitsopoulos, 21, was in South Florida visiting Mr. LaFont, a close friend of his father’s. He was studying economics at Vanderbilt University and had been a decathlon athlete at his high school. An image of him is on a mural outside the school’s athletic facility.

Leon Oliwkowicz, 80, and Cristina Beatriz Elvira, 74, were from Venezuela and had recently moved to Surfside, according to Chabadinfo.com, which said they were active in the Orthodox Jewish community in greater Chicago, where one of their daughters lives.

Marcus Joseph Guara, 52, lived with his wife, Anaely Rodriguez, 42, and their two daughters, Lucia Guara, 10, and Emma Guara, 4. Mr. Guara was remembered as a kind and generous man, a godfather to twins and a fan of hard rock music.

Hilda Noriega, 92, was a longtime resident of Champlain Towers South who enjoyed traveling and whose family described her “unconditional love.” Hours before the collapse, she attended a celebration with relatives.

Michael David Altman, 50, came from Costa Rica to the United States as a child, and was an avid racquetball player as a youth. “He was a warm man. He conquered a lot of obstacles in his life and always came out on top,” his son, Nicholas, told The Miami Herald.

Also killed in the collapse were Ingrid Ainsworth, 66, and Tzvi Ainsworth, 68; Claudio Bonnefoy, 85, and Maria Obias-Bonnefoy, 69; Graciela Cattarossi, 48, Gino Cattarossi, 89, and Graciela Cattarossi, 86; Magaly Elena Delgado, 80; Bonnie Epstein, 56, and David Epstein, 58; Francis Fernandez, 67; Nancy Kress Levin, 76, and Jay Kleiman, 52; Elaine Sabino, 71; Simon Segal, 80; Gonzalo Torre, 81; and the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter, whom the authorities declined to name.