Miami building collapse toll of 11 dead and 150 missing

The death toll from a 12-story residential building collapse in the city of Surfside, Florida rose to 11 after another body was found, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella reported. Levine Cava, while 150 people are still missing, including nine Argentines.

“In the last few hours, our rescuers have recovered another victim. In total, the number of people found is now 136. With 150 missing. The number of confirmed deaths is 11. Tragically, 11,” said the mayor. of Miami at a press conference. -Dade County’s Daniella Levine Cava, AFP news agency reported.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Andy Alvarez told ABC they met “Holes inside the building” where survivors could be found. “We cling to this hope that we can save someone alive,” he said.

After the 55 apartments of the Champlain Towers complex collapsed last Thursday, Miami-Dade County firefighters, supported by reinforcements from across the state of Florida, they worked to start the rescue efforts.

According to relatives of the victims, operations among the iron and concrete rubble are proceeding too slowly, AFP added.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Andy Alvarez told ABC “holes inside the building” have been discovered where survivors can be found. “We cling to this hope that we can save someone alive,” he said.

According to the information provided, there are 29 Latin Americans we have not heard from: nine from Argentina, six from Colombia, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela, three from Uruguay and one from Chile.

“It sounds slow, but we are moving as fast as possible,” said Maggie Castro, a member of the Miami-Dade Fire Department’s No.1 Search and Rescue Unit.

He added that “it is a difficult operation” which is interrupted by regular thunderstorms and a fire which took a long time to bring under control.

“We have to search a huge pile of debris in a methodical and strategic manner,” said Castro, 52, 17 as a member of the Miami Fire Department, adding that “there are areas with possible air pockets. where there may be survivors. If we rush aggressively into the rubble, we destroy those spaces. “

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett explained that there is a “probable cause” to believe that there might be a problem with the collapsed twin building, who has already been voluntarily evacuated, informed the DPA agency.

Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have visited the region to investigate possible causes for the collapse of the building.

The first rescuers, who arrived shortly after the disaster, they managed to make a teenager live from the ruins. Meanwhile, the human remains have yet to be identified.

Given the slow increase in casualties despite the scale of the tragedy, Castro said “people were probably in bed when this happened”, so there is little chance of finding more than one. that time.

Heavy machinery, two cranes and a shovel were deployed on Friday, but when a concrete slab is lifted, rescuers “work by hand, picking up the rubble with buckets,” he said.

The teams use a variety of equipment and technology, including underground sonar systems capable of detecting casualties and crane trucks capable of removing huge slabs of concrete from the pile, Andy Álvarez, Miami-Dade fire chief, told the ANSA agency.

Between 50 and 60 rescuers and canine units work permanently on the site, supported by image and sound technology to locate airspaces.

Moises Soffer, volunteer for the Judeo-Latin American organization Cadena International, participates with Oreo, his almost two-year-old pomsky dog, specially trained to find survivors.

“I let her go and she goes where she wants. Interstices, spaces where an adult cannot go, in places that are unstable because of her weight,” says the 36-year-old Mexican.

If Soffer detects a danger, recognition is done with the leash and the dog marks “the direction” to follow.

Oreo can work five to six hours straight, with 20-minute breaks, and at Surfside it works early in the morning and late in the afternoon due to the heat and humidity.

Soffer is not allowed to say if his dog has detected any survivors, although he has assured that he will stay “as long as it takes”.

Castro said during the rescue efforts they heard “falling debris, twisted metal, but we didn’t hear human noise.”

“It’s difficult, exhausting and emotionally heavy when you work for hours without finding anyone”, I admitted.

Álvarez said that “it is a frantic search to continue to see this hope, this miracle, to see who we can get out of this building alive.”

Conditions are “bad” and “not ideal” for rescuers due to the heat, humidity and rain, he said.

“Now that we have these huge cranes, we’re doing a big lift (of rubble). It will help us to laminate this building almost like an onion, so that we can go in and, again, find these voids that we know could possibly be there and save these people, ”he said. .

Faced with the impatience of the families of the victims, including many members of the Jewish community, the county welcomed a team of Israeli specialists, a dozen experts who joined the rescue teams working on the site.

Castro recalled that his unit has experience: participated in search and rescue after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Some members of his team also participated in relief operations after the Oklahoma attacks in 1995 and September 11, 2001, at the Twin Towers in New York.