With a minute of silence, the rescue of the survivors was abandoned

The mayor of the county Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, said on Thursday that rescuers passed the rescue survivors of a body search and recovery operation on the fifteenth day of the collapse of the Tours Champlain Sud condominium building.

Indeed, since midnight Thursday, the operation had been transferred to the area of ​​the accident, after the authorities had determined that there was no longer any hope of finding people alive among the mountain of rubble.

Levine Cava revealed, in this regard, that rescuers stopped their work around 1:20 a.m. to observe a minute of silence after the two weeks of the collapse of the 12-story tower of the residential building of The City of Surfside. , which occurred on June 24, as published by Sonia Osorio in the newspaper El Nuevo Herald.

The balance sheet so far shows the extraction of 60 dead, of which 35 have been identified and the family members of 34 of them have been warned, 80 “potentially” missing and 200 located.

Miami-Dade Fire Chief of Operations Ray Jaddallah told families of the missing that the force with which the collapse occurred, as if it were a “pancake”, did not left no empty space for anyone inside the building to survive. , and noted that in one section of the parking lot, six floors of the building were stacked on top of each other.

“It literally leaves no space available for someone to stay alive,” he resigned himself.

As the crews continue their work, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said she asked the grand jury investigating what happened in the collapse to analyze how ” such a disaster “can be avoided in any case.

“Speaking to members of the Miami-Dade County Grand Jury from the spring term, pending the conclusion of the long-term investigation that will reveal the cause of the collapse, I asked that they discuss of how we can prevent a disaster like this.The type will happen again, not only in Surfside, and not just in condominiums, but in all buildings and structures in the coastal, intercoastal and surrounding areas of our county, state and nation, ”he said in a statement.

The public prosecutor indicated that the members of the grand jury accepted “the challenge” and voted in favor of carrying out this investigation. “

Fernández Rundle said that as a community they remain shocked and horrified by “the loss of life and the enormous destruction caused by the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium”.

Partial balance

Rescue teams recovered six more bodies from the site where a residential building collapsed near Miami Beach on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 60.

Two other victims have been identified by authorities as Elaine Lia Sabino, 71, and Gary Cohen, 58.

Sabino’s body was found in the rubble last Tuesday and Cohen’s was found on Wednesday.

Miami-Dade County Mayor said: “We are here on the 15th, officially after two weeks of this unimaginable and unprecedented tragedy that has broken the hearts of everyone in the world,” she said. more calmly about Wednesday when he cried. in front of the media.

He assured that the work is being done “quickly and with a sense of urgency” by teams in Florida, across the United States and around the world.

“They work tirelessly to recover the victims and ensure a sense of closure to families as much as possible (…) Our detectives are working with the medical staff on site as quickly as possible to identify the victims and notify their parents” , did he declare.

He also maintained that each recovered victim is treated with the utmost care and compassion.

They have religious leaders from the start of the operation, including rabbis and other religions, and in the tent that takes place when the body of a person of Jewish faith is retrieved, a prayer is said and protocol in due form is executed.

First responders also collect any personal items they find among the rubble so that families can eventually retrieve them.

For this, there is a catalog of photos, jewelry, documents, tablets, mobile phones, among others.

The mayor thanked all the rescuers for doing their best in the search and rescue and now in the recovery mission.

“May God bring peace to all families and watch over our community in the difficult days that follow,” said Levine Cava.