Israel sent delegation of experts to help save collapsed building in Miami

A joint assistance delegation from the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry traveled to the United States to assist the destruction site in Miami, United States, after a residential building collapsed.

The delegation is headed by the commander of the Home Front Command’s National Rescue Unit, Colonel Golan Vach, and includes a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guy Giladi, former deputy consul general in Miami. In addition, the delegation is made up of ten Home Front Command reserve officers, all high-level experts in the field of engineering and social assistance.

The mission of the delegation is to aid rescue efforts by mapping the site of destruction, helping the Jewish community identify victims and survivors, and supporting local relief forces in general. The preparations for the delegation were led by the Head of the Home Front Command, Brigadier General Itzik Bar.

The delegation was received by staff at the Israeli Consulate General in Miami and Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, who have maintained a regular presence at the site since the tragic collapse and provided assistance with clothing, medicine, food. , emergency lighting and more.

“The State of Israel has no greater friend than the United States, and the United States has no greater friend than Israel. In difficult times like this, we stand alongside our American friends and the Jewish community in Florida, ”said Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

Fire makes rescue work difficult

A fire this Saturday complicated the so far unsuccessful search for the 156 missing people left by the partial collapse of a building in Florida, which suffered “significant structural damage”, according to a 2018 report.

“We are facing enormous difficulties with this fire,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava admitted Saturday at a press conference.

The blaze, whose source firefighters were unable to locate, erupted where the 12-story Champlai Towers collapsed early Thursday morning. Smoke spreads through the rubble, making some search areas inaccessible, according to the mayor.

At least four people have died after the 12-story oceanfront building collapsed in Surfside, near Miami Beach, while residents slept inside early Thursday morning.

“We remain hopeful. We continue to look for survivors in the rubble, it is our priority and our teams have not stopped “the work.Levine Cava provided this Saturday at a press conference.

Almost a third of the missing are foreigners: nine are Argentines, six Paraguayans – including the sister of the first lady of this country – and at least four Canadians, according to the authorities.

Increasingly frustrated families are growing impatient and fearful that the high number of missing will increase the death toll.

Some relatives of the victims criticize the rescue operations and begin to lose hope. “Not a single rescuer has tried to remove the rubble, little by little, even by hand, without a machine, to evacuate people,” Maurice Wachsmann told AFP on Friday. His best friend and another acquaintance of him are missing.

“My mother’s friend is there (under the rubble). We want to hope, but we have to be realistic. The next step is to be with the families and find out why this happened, ”said Mark, 55, without giving his last name.

“Our experience is that for the first 72 hours there’s a good chance people are still alive there,” Miami-Dade County Firefighter Danny Cardeso told CBS.

Rescuers, hearing noises emanating from the rubble but were not sure they were human, dug a tunnel under the building’s flooded parking lot in an attempt to reach possible survivors.

Near the site of the disaster, a monument with candles, flowers and around 40 photos of the missing was erected. “We have a friend who was able to escape from the building with her husband,” Gina Berlin, 54, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1992 told AFP on Saturday. “I am still in shock and I am come to pray for the missing. “

Questions about the causes of the collapse have multiplied and the investigation will likely last for months. However, a 2018 state of the building report found “significant structural damage” and “cracks” in the basement, according to documents released Friday night by the town of Surfside.

“The waterproofing under the edge of the pool and the access road for vehicles (…) has passed its useful life and therefore needs to be completely removed and replaced”, said expert Frank Morabito, boss of Morabito, in the Consultants report. “Defective waterproofing causes significant structural damage to the structural concrete slab below these areas,” the document adds.

“If the waterproofing is not replaced in the near future, the degree of deterioration of the concrete will increase exponentially,” says the study, which does not mention the risk of collapse, although it calls for repairs to maintain “structural integrity”.

Until now, attention has been mainly focused on a 2020 balance sheet which revealed that the building had subsided at a rate of about 2 millimeters per year between 1993 and 1999.

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