Miami Collapse: Building Demolition Accelerated by Tropical Storm Elsa | The death toll rises to 24

The tropical storm Elsa puts more pressure on search and rescue operations for victims in the partially collapsed building in Miami-Dade and has already forced the authorities to decide its complete demolition before Monday.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Two other bodies have been exhumed from the rubble in recent hours, bringing the number of missing to 124.

Given the expected arrival of Storm Elsa in South Florida as of Monday afternoon, it was decided to advance the demolition of one of the wings of the Champlain Towers South complex, which has 84 apartments. and was not affected by the early morning collapse. June 24.

The causes of the collapse of the northeast wing of the 40-year-old waterfront building in Surfside are still unknown.

As a result of the tragic event, 55 apartments were reduced to a mountain of rubble in which hundreds of rescuers have been working for 10 days.

Rescue tasks were only suspended last Thursday for around 15 hours due to movements in the area that did not fall, which it was decided to demolish as it is still unstable.

The Champlain towers will disappear completely

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the demolition would take place “as early as tomorrow”. Meanwhile, Cava Levine said that before letting the storm collapse the party standing It is best to knock it over in a controlled manner so that it does not cause more damage.

Regarding the criteria that will be retained for the demolition, the authorities have specified that it will be led by a team of specialists who will seek to “preserve the evidence” and allow the rescue missions to continue as soon as possible.

Alan Cominsky, chief of the Miami-Dade fire department, said areas where it is believed there could be casualties will be protected so that they are not affected by the falling building remains.

Tropical Storm Elsa, which began approaching southern Dominican Republic on Saturday and will later affect Cuba, added to the difficulties already facing search and rescue operations for victims due to the coronavirus pandemic. .

According to the National Hurricane Center, Elsa’s current trajectory indicates that after leaving Cuba, it is more likely that she is heading west, on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast, and not east, where is Miami Dade.

If these forecasts are maintained, there would be no direct impact of the storm in the area of ​​the collapsed building, since there is an area that occurs between the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay, on the shores of which is Miami.

For their part, the representatives of the emergency control agencies recalled this Saturday that Surfside is a compulsory evacuation zone in the event of a cyclone, so they took the opportunity to make an appeal to its population, as well as to the rest of Miami- Dade, to take the necessary precautions against the possible arrival of Storm Elsa.

The Covid-19 arrived at the scene of the disaster

In addition to the “human cost” involved in search and rescue operations, as defined by Mayor Levine Cava on Thursday, it was recently confirmed that at least six rescuers, from other parts of Florida, have been tested positive for Covid-19.

Faced with this situation, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky reported on Saturday that they and the entire task force to which they belong are no longer deployed.

In addition, coronavirus tests are carried out on everyone who works in the operations, in which up to 500 people participated.

Florida is far from having reached the target of 70% of the population vaccinated by July 4 that US President Joseph Biden set at the start of his mandate. According to official data which does not include minors under the age of 18, 64.7% of its adult population has received at least one dose.

According to the Johns Hopkins University register, Florida is the third state in the country with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 since March 2020, with more than 23 million people infected, and the fourth with the most deaths, a total of 37,985.

On the other hand, Mayor Levine Cava took the opportunity to thank municipal authorities in some Florida cities for taking seriously the need to review that other buildings 40 years or older may have issues like those of Champlain Towers South, where since 2018 there has been significant structural damage.

Following this line, the Crestview Towers building, which dates from 1972 and has 156 apartments, was evacuated on Friday by order of the North Miami Beach town hall.

The city manager of this city, Arthur H. Sorey, stressed that the safety of people is paramount and explained that his decision was based on the results of an inspection that was carried out after the collapse of the Champlain South towers, which declared the structure and electrical installation of the Crestview towers unsafe.