Miami landslide: death toll rises to 16 after four bodies found under rubble

Four more bodies were found overnight in the rubble of the collapsed building in Floridaauthorities said on Wednesday, when the looking for more than 140 people disappeared has entered its seventh day.

Official death toll now stands at 16 after most of a building in the city of Surfside, in the Miami area, suddenly collapsed last Thursday, but hopes that the hundreds of rescuers scouring the seaside site will find someone alive are dwindling.

“We have now recovered four more casualties. The death toll is 16. Twelve notifications from close relatives have been completed, meaning that four families are still waiting to hear.Miami County Mayor said.Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, during a press conference.

He said the staff of what has become a huge rescue operation were doing “Everything humanly possible, and anything else, to overcome this tragedy, and we are doing it together.”

The colonel Golan Vach, head of an Israeli military unit specializing in search and rescue operations, said CNN What his team had discovered the bodies while examining the debris, finding what he described as tunnels through the rubble.

In one case, this space was created between the balconies of the apartments which collapsed when part of the building collapsed, He said.

“Between them there was a big air gap”said Vach. “We are crawling through these tunnels. We called people and unfortunately we couldn’t find anything ”.

He said hopes of finding survivors so long after the early morning collapse were “Very, very minor. We have to be realistic ”.

Police also announced the identification of victim number 12. This is Hilda Noriega, a 92-year-old woman whose body was found yesterday.

No warning

The collapse of the 12-storey building of the Champlain Sud towers caused a search and rescue effort that involved engineers and specialists from across the United States and places as far away as Mexico e Israel.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden will visit the site on Thursday with First Lady Jill Biden to ensure that national and local authorities have everything they need for the rescue effort and will meet with the families of the victims.

Residents of the portion of the South Champlain Towers that remained intact said they were awakened around 1:30 a.m. (05:30 GMT) Thursday by what looked like thunder shook their rooms.

“It was like an earthquake”said to AFP Janette Agüero, who escaped from the 11th floor of the tower with her family.

Rescue teams who arrived moments after the tower fell they helped evacuate dozens of residents and pulled a living teenager out of the rubble.

But since no other survivors found, despite the fact that a large number of rescuers combed through the debris using sniffer dogs and cranes.

“There are currently 210 people working on the site. The urban search and rescue team has been augmented by teams from across the state and around the world, ”Levine Cava said Tuesday.

Experts analyze possible pre-existing critical defects in the tower structure of apartments.

An October 2018 report released by city officials last Friday revealed fears of “major structural damage” to the complex, from the concrete slab under the pool terrace to the columns and beams in the parking lot.

In a letter to residents in April, Jean Wodnicki, president of the syndicate of co-owners, described the deterioration “accelerated” of the building since then.

Repairs were due to start soon on the 40-year-old building, but they didn’t come early enough.

(With information from AFP)

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