Condo collapse death toll now stands at 78, Miami-Dade mayor says

An additional 14 bodies were found in the partially collapsed Miami Beach area condominium building, bringing the confirmed death toll to 78, the Miami-Dade County mayor said on Friday.

“This is a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects us all very deeply,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a morning press conference.

Teams have spent the last two weeks digging through the rubble of the destroyed Champlain South Towers at Surfside after a section of the building collapsed in the early morning of June 24.

Officials on Wednesday said they were ending search and rescue efforts and moving to a recovery operation. Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said it was not an easy decision as they had “hoped to find more survivors.”

“But our experience and expertise indicated that this was no longer possible,” he explained.

Cominsky said switching to a salvage operation would allow crews to use more heavy equipment on the pile.

Of the 78 people confirmed to be dead, 47 have been identified and their family members warned, Levine Cava said on Friday. Officials say up to 200 people have been identified, 62 of whom are still potentially missing.

“All of those who have passed away, all 78 of them, leave loved ones behind,” said Levine Cava. “They are leaving devastated families behind. The scale of this tragedy grows every day.”

Search and recovery teams removed more than 13 million pounds of concrete and debris. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said he visited the site on Friday morning and thanked the teams for their work.

“The pile that originally had around four or five floors is now almost at ground level,” he said.

As authorities continue to dig at the site, questions remain as to why the building collapsed. In documents released by officials last month, an engineer expressed concern that the building had “major structural damage.” Engineer Frank Morabito said his findings showed there were “extensive cracks” and spalling in the condominium’s underground parking lot, according to the 2018 report.

He also said the concrete slabs near the entrance and the pool deck “showed distress” and recommended that they be removed and replaced. He said the problems should “be repaired in a timely manner.”

The National Institute of Standards and Technology and local agencies are investigating the causes of the partial collapse.