Officials announced that after some missing persons appeared safe and duplicate names were removed from the list, the number of missing persons in the collapse of the Surfside apartment on Friday dropped from 145 to 128.
The Mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava (Daniella Levine Cava) said that a review by the authorities found that the number of missing persons was higher than the actual situation, because when the entire family was found to be safe, the individual had been moved. To the “Accounted” list. In other cases, people reported the English and Hebrew names of the same person, resulting in duplication.
Search and rescue operations also found two other bodies, bringing the death toll to 20. One of the newly confirmed deaths was the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter, who was called “a member of our firefighting family” by the Mayor of Miami, Francis.
Levina Cava said, “It is more difficult for our first responders to find the girl’s body”.
She said at the press conference: “These men and women are paying a huge price for their lives every day. I ask all of you to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.”
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The day before Friday’s announcement, officials said they were working on a plan to demolish the remaining part of the building, as concerns about the instability of the building caused the search for survivors to be suspended for 15 hours.
FEMA structural expert Scott Nacheman (Scott Nacheman) said that the demolition will slow down rescue operations, but will create a safer working environment, allowing more people to enter the site and speed up the pace of work. He said it may take several weeks for officials to arrange the demolition work.
No one has been rescued since the first hour after the 12-story Champlain Tanan apartment collapsed.
On Friday morning, it was possible to see about a dozen workers digging piles that now reach about 20 feet (6 meters), which is more than 10 feet (3 meters) less than a week ago. The crane lifted the heavy objects from the pile again, and then the workers would climb into the pile and begin to remove the smaller rubble by hand.
Rescue work stopped early on Thursday, because staff noticed a large column of cracks growing wider and moving one foot.
Kava said that shortly after the structural engineer assessed the site, work resumed before 5 pm, and described the firefighters as “really, really excited.”
She said: “We will continue to search feverishly, as we have been doing in the part of the collapse that we currently have access to.”
The shutdown has threatened that hope of finding anyone among the ruins a week after the collapse of the tower becomes slim. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett (Charles Burkett) said that the work stoppage is worrying because “minutes and hours are important and lives are at stake.”
The cause of the collapse is under investigation. An engineering report in 2018 found that the bottom pool deck of the building rested on a concrete slab, which had “major structural damage” and required extensive repairs. The report also found “a lot of cracks” in the concrete columns, beams and walls of the parking lot.
Just two months before the building collapsed, the chairman of its board of directors wrote a letter to residents stating that the structural problems found in the 2018 inspection were “significantly worse” and that overhauls would require at least $15.5 million. As bids for the project are still awaiting, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.
Gerald Herbert/Associated Press Photo
