More than 150 remain missing with four confirmed dead after Thursday’s collapse of a Florida residential high-rise.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency with the federal government now offering resources for extraction and investigation.
A White House declaration stated FEMA will “coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures.”
Three more bodies have been pulled from the rubble that consists of 12 floors sandwiched into the parking garage below at the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Miami.
The number of individuals who remain missing has grown to 159 as families fail to connect with loved ones living at or renting condos through popular apps like Airbnb. Stated Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, “I want to be very clear about the numbers. They are very fluid,” the mayor said.
Levin Cara added that about 102 people “have been accounted for,” which is “way up from the original count.”
“We’re very, very grateful for the hard work of our firefighters on the scene working throughout the night day and night from above and from below,” Levine Cava said. Throughout the night, Miami-Dade fire officials said they could hear sonar-detected sounds coming from within the collapsed building.
“Every time that we hear a sound, we concentrate in that area. So, we send additional teams, utilizing the devices, utilizing K9, utilizing personnel. As we continue to hear those sounds we concentrate in those areas,” Jadallah told reporters.
Time is running out to find survivors and some fear this could become the deadliest building collapse in U.S. history.
The deadliest non-deliberate structural collapse in the nation occurred on July 17, 1981. It killed 114 people in Kansas City, Missouri when the second- and fourth-story walkways inside the Hyatt Regency hotel collapsed onto the lobby during a dance. The collapse injured over 200 and led to a decade of investigations, lawsuits and, ultimately, revisions to building codes around the country.
–Metro Voice