More victims of condo collapse identified as rescue efforts wind down

The search for three weeks of victims in the Champlain Towers South condo collapse in Surfside is drawing to a close, but efforts to identify the remains found in the rubble continue.

The balance sheet now stands at 95 identified bodies, after Miami-Dade County Police tweeted the name of the latest victim, Theresa Velasquez, 36, whose body was found on July 8. Two people are still missing and 241 have been identified.

There are still challenges as search teams attempt to retrieve every victim, including water flooding the parking lot structure’s “tub”, which continues to leak and crack, the Mayor of Surfside said, Charles Burkett, at the Miami Herald.

The numbers have fluctuated over the weeks as the system for reporting the dead and missing has changed. The death toll was reported at 95 on Tuesday, reflecting the recovery of another body from the rubble.

But the authorities now only use the number of victims identified in the official report. “At this point it’s difficult,” said Miami-Dade Police spokesman Carlos Rosario. “There are human remains that are identified… it’s a scientific process, and we don’t mean the wrong number. We took a step back. “

Miami-Dade Police identified two other victims on Friday: Maria Popa, 79, who was pulled from the rubble on July 9, and Brad Cohen, 51, who was recovered on July 7.

Popa’s husband Mihai Radulescu, 82, was identified on Thursday. The couple owned Unit 404. Cohen’s brother Gary, who was visiting the orthopedic surgeon in Alabama, was identified on July 8.

Amid the recovery efforts, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency investigating the collapse, released an update on its investigation on Friday.

NIST uses a remote sensing technology called lidar, drones and accelerated cameras to aid its investigation. At least 200 pieces of debris, including columns, beams and pieces of concrete, have been tagged as evidence.

Investigators are also studying the “sister” condo, Champlain Towers North, as they try to understand why the Champlain Towers South collapsed around 1:30 am on June 24. They installed sensors on the building to measure the vibrations.

As investigations continue, an effort to start the process of selling the property has been called off amid a backlash.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman kicked off the process earlier in the week, hoping the sale of the site, valued at over $ 100 million, would generate more money for survivors and families of the victims. But at a hearing on Friday, he called off a quick sale, saying he had heard from members of the community who wanted the site to be reserved for a memorial or redeveloped for survivors to live there.

“Some people want it sold and the product distributed immediately, others want to rebuild the property,” said Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed lawyer for the condominium owners association, Local reported. 10 News. “And some think it’s sacred ground and should be a memorial forever.”

Hanzman said “all competing interests will be taken into account before a decision is made.”

“We are very concerned about how the process is going to work,” Oren Cytrynbaum, who owned unit 905 next door to another, Unit 906, which belonged to his family in Canada, told the Herald. These condos were in the front half of the building, which remained standing after the collapse but was later demolished by Miami-Dade County.

Cytrynbaum, himself a lawyer, said that there are two groups of people, the owners of Champlain condos and the injured or deceased victims, who must be reconciled: it is “very difficult to separate them” because “we know it’s going to be unfair ”.