Miami collapse: Bodies of Paraguayan first lady’s sister and brother-in-law found in Surfside rubble

Death toll in building collapse reaches 64, with an additional 76 unaccounted for

The bodies of several close members of the Paraguayan president’s family have been found in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South building that collapsed at Miami’s Surfside area in southern Florida two weeks ago.

The confirmed death toll since the disaster occurred on 24 June has risen to 64, with another 76 people still unaccounted for who may have been inside the building at the time it collapsed. The final death toll could be as high as 140, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told news channel CNN.

On Thursday, a Paraguayan official said rescuers had found the bodies of Sophia López Moreira, the sister of Paraguay’s first lady Silvana Abdo, her husband Luis Pettengill and the youngest of their three children in the rubble.

The South American nation’s foreign minister, Euclides Acevedo, told Paraguay’s ABC Cardinal radio station that their two other children and the children’s nanny are also still missing.

“We ask people for their solidarity and prayer. In the face of a tragedy, Paraguayan people must show their traditional solidarity,” he said.

The rescuers and officials involved said there is no chance of anyone being trapped alive in the rubble and are therefore now focused on finding remains instead of survivors. Rescue officials have vowed to keep up their search for the victims until all the debris is cleared from the site.

No one has been found alive since several were pulled from the rubble in the first few hours after the disaster occurred. Authorities are launching a grand jury investigation into the collapse, with at least six lawsuits being filed by families of the victims.

Detectives from the Miami police are also trying to verify if everyone who is listed as missing was actually in the building when it collapsed.

Surfside mayor Charles Burkett, at an evening news conference, quoted a rescue official as telling family members at a meeting that crews “will not stop working until they’ve gotten to the bottom of the pile and recovered every single of the families’ missing loved ones”.

The mayor did not identify the official, but said the families were grateful. “This is exactly the message the families wanted to hear,” he said.

There was no let-up in the pace or number of rescuers at the site, even as teams paused briefly atop the rubble to mark the two-week anniversary of the disaster, according to Levine Cava.

“The work continues with all speed and urgency. We are working around the clock to recover victims and to bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can,” she said.

On Tuesday, several hundred mourners gathered at a Miami Beach church for the first funeral held for victims of the collapse.

Meanwhile, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has pledged financial assistance to families of the victims as well as to residents of the building who survived, but lost all their possessions.

The governor has said that in addition to property tax relief for residents of the building, the state government will work toward channeling an outpouring of charitable donations to families affected by the collapse.

The rescuers have estimated that the recovery effort will take several more weeks even as crews are now using heavier equipment to expedite the removal of debris.

Additional reporting by agencies