SURFSIDE – Rescuers yesterday combed through the debris of a deadly condo tower collapse in Florida, as Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to complicate the delicate search mission with strong winds and heavy rain.
The death toll from the disaster in Surfside, a town north of Miami Beach, on June 24 rose to 36, as search teams found four more bodies in the rubble, said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Twenty-six victims have been identified.
Cava said 109 people were still listed as missing, and the authorities have been able to confirm that 70 of that number were in the 12-storey building when it came tumbling down.
She said the storm is making the already “challenging and adverse conditions” faced by search teams even more difficult.
“We are closely monitoring the weather.”
The National Hurricane Centre said Elsa, which has maximum sustained winds of 110km per hour, is expected to become a hurricane before making landfall on the north Florida Gulf coast this morning.
The authorities warned residents to prepare for storm surge and possible power outages, but Surfside and the Miami area on the east coast of the state appear to have avoided the brunt of the storm.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the weather is impacting the search of the debris from the building, known as Champlain Towers South.
“The wind is hampering the large cranes moving very heavy debris. That is a challenge that they are trying to work around right now.”
Miami-Dade fire chief Alan Cominsky said the demolition of the still standing portion of the building on Sunday night had allowed search teams to expand their operations.
He said 200 firefighters are “actively searching on the pile” with assistance from teams around the country and the world.
A total of 124 tonnes of debris have been removed so far, he added. – AFP, July 7, 2021
