- Later this week, US President Joe Biden will visit the site of a fatal apartment building collapse in southern Florida.
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters on Monday: “The search continues and will not stop until there is a solution.”
- Rescue teams from Florida and abroad worked day and night to search for signs of life in the wreckage.
The White House announced on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden will visit the site of a deadly apartment building collapse in southern Florida later this week, as rescuers search for the wreckage in an increasingly desperate search for survivors.
“On Thursday, July 1, the president and first lady will travel to Surfside, Florida,” the government said in a statement, adding that details of the trip will be provided at a later date.
The death toll caused by the collapse of a beachfront apartment building last Thursday was 11 on Tuesday, and 150 people are still missing, leaving desperate families worried about the worst.
Biden said on Sunday that his government will coordinate with local officials and is “prepared to provide any support or assistance needed.”
“For families who endured this tragedy, this is an unimaginably difficult time,” he said in a statement.
Experts are studying possible serious flaws in the structure of the apartment building. When residents went to bed early on Thursday morning, the apartment building turned into a pile of smoking rubble.
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Rescue teams from Florida and abroad worked day and night to search for signs of life in the ruins, but the prospects became more and more severe, and no one was alive in the ruins.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told reporters on Monday: “The search continues and will not stop until there is a solution.”
On Monday night, friends and neighbors of the residents of the building held a vigil on a nearby beach. They held white roses in their hands and sobbed as a coordinator burned incense and blew the gong.
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The glow sticks and dirt on the beach spelled out the word “hope”, and the sound of rescuers using power tools in the ruins of buildings along the coast continued all night.
The October 2018 report issued by city officials late Friday showed that there were concerns about “major structural damage” to the Champlain Tann complex, from the concrete slabs under the pool deck to the columns and beams in the parking lot.
The 40-year-old building will soon begin to be repaired-but not fast enough.
Read also | Florida town officials say the building is safe despite warnings-report
The president of the Apartment Association, Jean Wodnicki, described the “accelerated” destruction of buildings since then in a letter to residents in April.
Engineers and search and rescue experts from Israel and Mexico joined an army of American workers supported by two huge cranes and sniffer dogs at the scene.
