Mother and daughter “shouldn’t be alive” after condo collapse

SURFSIDE, Fla. – A mother and daughter who said paramedics “shouldn’t be alive” after what they experienced when the condo tower collapsed are on the long road to recovery, said declared a relative on Friday.

But the husband and father who lived with them remained among the missing after crews shifted search and rescue efforts this week to a recovery operation.

Angela and Edgar Gonzalez were on the ninth floor of the Champlain South Towers with their 16-year-old daughter Deven when she collapsed in the early hours of June 24. Another girl was not at home at the time.

“In the middle of the night my daughter woke up because she heard a strange noise, and when she woke up the building was shaking,” said Angela Gonzalez’s mother, Kathleen Gonzalez.

“She started yelling at them to get up and get out, and she just ran with her daughter, pulled her daughter by the arm, when they came out the front door, they didn’t even do five. feet, and he fell to a lower floor, ”she said.

Angela and Deven were separated, and as Deven was screaming for her mother, Angela “crawled and put her body on my granddaughter and they fell back to the third floor,” Gonzalez said.

She said paramedics and firefighters visited them on several occasions and told them “they shouldn’t be alive” after what they went through.

Gonzalez said Angela’s pelvis was broken and she had a collapsed lung, spinal injuries and needed hip surgery.

“She was literally crushed, and it’s just amazing that she is sitting in bed today,” she said.

Deven will go to a physical rehabilitation center and will still need a year or two to fully recover, she said.

Her granddaughter’s femur was shattered and a piece of metal pierced her skull.

In addition to the physical trauma Angela and Deven endure, they and the rest of the family grapple with the emotional pain of Edgar Gonzalez who has been missing in the past 15 days and which matters.

All they can do is wait, but they had a pastor with them when they reunited with other family members to share the devastating news that the research had gone into recovery mode.

Gonzalez said the family had lived in the building for about 15 years and would hold large family reunions there for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

“I mean, it just freaks me out. I could have lost 25 of my family, you know, if that had happened during the holidays, ”she said.

Gonzalez stayed at Sextant Stays, where a hotel company provides free temporary accommodation, food and other items to families and survivors of Sunny Isles Beach.

“It’s amazing,” Gonzalez said. “It literally left me open just to focus on them and come and go to the hospital.”

KC Holmes, an employee who helps families at Sextant Stays, said they have tried to give everyone “a safe space” to stay and make them feel welcome.

“I think what was the hardest part was looking at the grief, the pain, the loss,” she said. “I pray with them. Amid all the darkness there was a ray of light: Their family cat, Binx, was found alive and “without a scratch on it,” Gonzalez said.

The death toll stood at 79 on Friday. “It’s a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects us all very deeply,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a press conference .

Miami-Dade Police said Friday that among the identified victims were Vishal Patel, 42, and his wife, Bhavna, 38. Their 1 year old daughter, Aishani, is still missing. Relatives said Bhavna Patel was five months pregnant.

Gita Patel, Vishal’s aunt, who has also stayed at Sextant Stays, said earlier this week that the family wanted to focus on “keeping the good memories with us”.

Those memories included Aishani’s recent birthday and the possibility of finally meeting her after the pandemic separated family members. The little girl was playing with family members she was meeting for the first time.

“He’s a beautiful baby,” Patel said. “We had a really good time.