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The death toll in a Miami-area condominium collapse rose to 78 on Friday, a number the mayor called “heartbreaking” and “mind-boggling” as rescuers worked hard during a 16th day to find victims in the rubble.
62 other people are still missing. No one has been found alive since the first hours after the building fell on June 24.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said work to recover victims was still urgently continued.
“This is a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects us all very deeply,” she said of the new death toll.
The Paraguayan Foreign Minister on Thursday said in a radio report that the body of the sister of the first lady of that country was among those found. Several Latin American citizens were reported in the building when it collapsed. Rescue workers are now focused on searching for remains rather than survivors vowed to continue their search for victims until they have cleared all debris from the site.
The careful search for survivors turned into a recovery effort at midnight on Wednesday after authorities said they came to the atrocious conclusion that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble of the city. Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside.
Hopes of finding survivors were briefly rekindled after workers demolished the rest of the building, allowing access to new areas of debris. Some voids where survivors could have been trapped existed, mostly in the basement and parking lot, but no one was found alive. Instead, the teams recovered more than a dozen additional casualties.
No one has been released alive since the first few hours after the 12-story building fell on June 24.
The state and local authorities have pledged financial assistance to the families of the victims, as well as to the residents of the building who survived but lost all their belongings.
Meanwhile, authorities are launching a grand jury investigation into the collapse. And at least six lawsuits have been filed by families.
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