Miami building collapse - updates: Death toll reaches 12 as extra rescue team requested amid tropical forecast
Follow the latest updates here
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The death toll from the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, continues to rise, with 12 confirmed fatalities, and a further 149 people missing.
Authorities in Florida have asked the federal government to send another rescue team to aid its efforts amid reports that tropical storms could hit Miami in the coming days.
Over the weekend, US media reported that a Surfside official assured residents of the now-collapsed condominium that it was “in very good shape”, a month after an engineering report found it had “major structural damage”.
A resident of a sister building told reporters he had “concerns” about a crack that appeared n his block, Champlain Towers East, after Thursday’s tragedy. Residents in the block have been offered to evacuate, although there is no imminent threat.
It comes amid reports that the building’s developers broke rules by adding an additional floor to the 12-storey building, and afterwards ignored warnings of structural damage.
Those with family members who may have been in the building at the time of its collapse are asked to call 305-614-1819. More information here.
Death toll rises to 11 as 150 remain missing
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the number of people killed by the Surfside condo collapse has risen to 11.
Speaking at an evening press conference, Cava said 150 remain missing as rescuers continue their tireless search. She said 136 people are accounted for.
“We are continually auditing the list and getting more calls and information from family members,” she said.
2018 engineering report "reads like a standard inspection report", says vice mayor
Surfside’s vice mayor Tina Paul told CNN the 2018 report that warned the building was in need of major repairs said it doesn’t’ seem like anything out of the ordinary.
She said it showed “severe issues” but that it “reads like a standard inspection report”. But, she added, “the work was starting to get underway”.
"You have to realize these buildings are old. It depends on the maintenance, it depends on when they were built, and it depends on the level of maintenance they’ve been doing," she told Jake Tapper. "A building like that should not collapse in this sort of way, based on routine maintenance."
Watch:
“No one ever, ever, ever told us that this – that that building was in such bad shape – no one, no one.”
Champlain Towers South resident Susana Alvarez told NPR a Town of Surfside official said during2018 meeting the building wasn’t in bad shape, despite a report warning five weeks earlier of concrete deterioration if repairs weren’t made “in the near future”.
“We sat there with the town of Surfside. And the town of Surfside said to us that the building was not in bad shape, that the building was not in bad shape. That is what they said, OK? The structural engineer has been around for a while. We took out $15 million to fix that building at his say-so,” she said.
11 dead ‘scattered throughout’ wreckage of Surfside condo
As the death toll increased to 11, rescuers said the deceased have been found “scattered throughout” the rubble and were not from “one, specific isolated area”.
The medical director of the Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1, Dr. Benjamin Abo, told CNN he is “still hopeful” that his team will find survivors.
“I pray and I work hard hoping that we’re going to get some more people,” Abo told CNN Newsroom. “But like I said, I’m cautiously optimistic as time goes on. And this is as a trained rescuer, and also a member of the community.”
Follow: Oscar the therapy dog
Florida’s chief financial officer and fire marshal Jimmy Patronis said rescue crews were holding up ok with only a small number of minor injuries as they tunnelled through the rubble in search of survivors.
About 370 people, made up of all the state’s Urban Search & Rescue teams, are deployed in 12-hour shifts in the largest operation in the state’s history that doesn’t involve a hurricane.
While they may be doing fine with just a few cuts or bruises, Oscar the therapy dog was on site to help them and the families of victims cope with the traumautic event,
Surfside hires structural engineer to look at collapse
Allyn Kilsheimer says he has already begun examining the building and will use a computer-assisted process of elimination to identify what caused the disaster.
“Generally speaking, you visit the site, you try to look at drawings to the extent they are available, you listen to all the clatter that happens when these things happen, and just keep that in the back of your head,” Mr Kilsheimer, the president of KCE Structural Engineers, told CNN.
“And then what I do is I come up with in my head a listing, based on my experience, of here are all the things that I think could cause this kind of a problem, and then you begin assessing all that information… and you eliminate those possibilities one at a time… and then as you’re doing this you come up with other possibilities.”
Family of missing woman try to remain hopeful
Kevin Spiegel says he is encouraged that the search and rescue operation is continuing around the clock.
“I have 100 per cent faith in a lot that’s going on here,” Mr Spiegel said of the search for the missing, which includes his wife, Judy Spiegel.
“Honestly, I think we all want more information. It’s coming slowly,” his son Michael Spiegel told CNN.
Kevin and Judy Spiegel have been married for 38 years and lived in the collapsed building for five years.
“She’s part of me. You can’t divide the two. We’re the same,” added Mr Spiegel.
Lightning is now a challenge for search and rescue operation
State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis said that lightning was now a safety issue as crews try and clear the rubble pile at the Champlain Towers South condominium
“The men and women of the task force as they are working on the hill removing debris to save lives, they are also standing on a giant piece of metal. All the rebar is an attraction to lightning,” Mr Patronis told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“It can hamper their ability because when lightning strikes then they have to clear the site.”
Miami Beach cancels 4 July fireworks
The City of Miami Beach has canceled its 4 July fireworks display as a “show of respect” for the victims of the collapsed condo in nearby Surfside, Florida.
The annual Fire on the Fourth festival had been scheduled for 72nd street and Collins Avenue in the city.
Concrete damage in condo building was ‘accelerating’, says letter
Damage to the building’s basement had “gotten significantly worse” and the concrete damage was “accelerating” according to a condo letter written in April.
In the letter Champlain Towers South Condominium Association president Jean Wodnicki acknowledged that the tens of millions of dollars of needed repairs had become a source of frustration for the building’s residents, according to USA Today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments