Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Death toll in Florida building collapse rises to 28, with 117 missing

Published 07/05/2021, 10:58 AM
Updated 07/05/2021, 10:56 PM
© Reuters. The partially collapsed Champlain Towers South residential building is demolished in Surfside, Florida, U.S., July 4, 2021. Picture taken July 4, 2021.  REUTERS/Marco Bello

© Reuters. The partially collapsed Champlain Towers South residential building is demolished in Surfside, Florida, U.S., July 4, 2021. Picture taken July 4, 2021. REUTERS/Marco Bello

By Francisco Alvarado

SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) -The death toll from a collapsed Miami-area condominium rose to 28 on Monday after the controlled demolition of the remainder of the building on Sunday night enabled rescuers to expand their search, officials said.

The discovery of the 28th victim was announced during a news conference Monday afternoon. Earlier in the day, officials reported pulling three other bodies from the wreckage.

Another 117 people remained missing 11 days after the 12-story residential building collapsed in Surfside, Florida, prompting a search-and-rescue effort that has continued almost around the clock, pausing only for bad weather, dangerous shifting of the rubble, and the demolition.

Roughly half of the condominium building came tumbling down early in the morning on June 24, and rescue workers were kept away from the unstable half that remained standing for their own safety.

Tropical Storm Elsa in the Caribbean had also threatened to blow the remains over, so officials ordered the building to be taken down by a demolition crew that placed charges at enough weak points to prompt another collapse.

"The search-and-rescue team has been able to search all sections of the grid on the collapse, following the building demolition," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters.

Although updated forecasts predict the Surfside area is likely to avoid the brunt of the storm on its projected course to the north from Cuba, scattered showers and thunderstorms were forecast.

Nobody has been pulled alive from the mounds of pulverized concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since the early hours of the disaster in an oceanfront town adjacent to Miami Beach in Florida.

But officials publicly express hope of finding additional survivors, however remote that may seem, while rotating crews of local and international experts take turns sifting through the debris.

"I'm in awe of the men and women of the ... task force teams who've been continuing to brave dangerous and changing conditions. For 12 days, fire, smoke, and now wind and torrential rain - they are continuing the mission and the search of a collapse area," Levine Cava said.

"Truly, they live to save lives," she said.

© Reuters. Search-and-rescue efforts resume the day after the managed demolition of the remaining part of Champlain Towers South complex in Surfside, Florida, U.S. July 5, 2021.  REUTERS/Marco Bello

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the site was "busier and more active now" than when the rescue effort began.

Investigators have not determined what caused the 40-year-old complex to collapse. A 2018 engineering report found structural deficiencies that are now the focus of inquiries that include a grand jury examination.

Latest comments

Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.