Miami condo collapse death toll rises to at least nine

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The official death toll for the Miami condo collapse rose to nine on Sunday after emergency workers found four more bodies – as rescuers dug a trench through the rubble in a bid to find survivors. 

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference Sunday afternoon that more bodies had been pulled from the wreckage, while one person died in hospital.

She said: ‘As of today, one victim passed away in the hospital, and we’ve recovered eight more victims on-site, so I am confirming today that the death toll is at nine. My deepest condolences to the friends, the families, the communities of those who lost their lives.’

Officials have not yet released the names of five of the victims to the public.

‘We are making every effort to identify those others who have been recovered, and additionally, contacting their family members as soon as we are able,’ Cava said. 

Four people who lost their lives in Thursday’s tragedy at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, near Miami Beach, have been named and pictured, while a further 150 are still unaccounted for. 

It came as Newsmax’s Miami correspondent Leonardo Feldman cited officials as saying that the remains of a further nine people had been recovered, which would bring the death toll up to 14. 

Teams of Israeli search-and-rescue specialists are now involved in the hunt for survivors. They join teams in protective gear, backed by two huge cranes and aided by sniffer dogs, who have been working nonstop in torrid heat and high humidity since the early-morning collapse.

The victims who have been identified so far are Antonio Lozano, 83, his wife Gladys Lozano, 79; Manny Lafont, 54; and Stacie Fang, 54.

Antonio and Gladys Lozano were identified through rapid DNA testing that was a match with their son Sergio Lozano, NBC Miami confirmed. 

Antonio’s body was recovered on Thursday while his wife’s was recovered on Friday. 

The pair both resided on a ninth floor apartment of the 12-floor building.

Their son Sergio said that his parents had talked in the past about being scared to die without each other, NBC Miami reported. 

He told Local10.com that he had dinner with his parents just hours before the collapse. 

Lozano lives just across from his parents in another tower of the Champlain condo complex where his parents’ apartment was in clear view. 

He said he was in bed when he and his wife heard the loud noises from the collapse, which he thought was from a windstorm or a tornado, he told Local10 news.

Lozano walked to his balcony to move furniture when he saw the wreckage and turned to his wife and told her: ‘It’s not there” And she’s yelling, ‘What do you mean?’ ”My parents’ apartment is not there, it’s gone!,” and I just ran downstairs,’ he said tearfully. 

‘He called me up and said mom and dad are gone, I said what do you mean? he said the building isn’t there,’ the couples other son Antonio Lozano told CBS 4.  ‘A building falls down in a third world country where they don’t have building codes and stuff, a building shouldn’t collapse like that.’

The Cuban couple was set to celebrate their 59th anniversary on July 21 and had known each other for more than 60 years, Lorenzo said. 

He told Local10 prior to the confirmation of their deaths that if they were confirmed dead he is taking solace in the fact that they ‘went together and went quickly.’

Authorities also confirmed Houston native Manuel LaFont, 54, who resided in an eighth floor apartment, died in the collapse. His body was recovered on Friday.  

Lafont was a Sharpstown High School graduate and is believed to have been with another Houston native, who is believed to be missing, in his eighth floor apartment at the time of the collapse, family told ABC13.com

Lafont was described as a proud father to his 10-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter he shared with his ex-wife Adriana.

The business consultant was a huge baseball fan and coached his son’s baseball team, the Astros, at North Shore Park, just a mile away from the doomed condo, the Miami Herald reported. 

The father of two was also a parishioner at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Miami Beach. 

The parish’s school parents gathered on Saturday to pray for LaFont and his neighbors who were still missing, the Herald reported. 

For three years LaFont worked across Latin American and the Caribbean for a manufacturing firm and led a division that focused on roadway safety that built crash cushions and moveable barriers.  

In a 2016 interview at an industry conference he explained why he got into this line of work.

‘I got into this industry specifically because I don’t want to sell widgets. I want to help people. I want to do something good in this world,’ he said. ‘When I die, I want to say that my life meant something.’

Adriana Lafont, told ABC13 on Saturday morning that she initially didn’t worry when she heard about the building collapse from a relative but when she drove to the condo and saw the scene, the seriousness of the situation dawned on her. 

‘It looks like a war zone or something like that,’ she told a relative over the phone in a panic. 

Adriana described Lafont as a doting father to their two children and said they had just spent Father’s Day together last Sunday.

Adriana told Winknews.com their kids would see Lafont for the last time when they visited him at the condo just three hours before the towers fell.

She said the condo was a place where the family made many memories together.  

‘I lived in that building for 10 years,’ she told ABC 13. ‘My kids were born there. They learned how to swim in that pool. We had birthday parties, first communions, baptisms, so many memories.’ 

Adriana also posted a touching tribute to her ex on Facebook on Saturday, hours before he was confirmed dead.

At the time she was still holding out hope her children would see him again.  

‘My Manny, who was my companion for so many years, the father of my children, the one who would chide me but love me at the same time ”Adriana be on time!! Adriana don’t change the plans!! Adriana, Adriana…”’ she posted in Spanish. 

‘I’m asking everyone for a prayer for Manny, keep the hope alive, my children will be clinging to the miracle of life,’ she wrote. ‘Manny, daddy, we want to hug you once again to tell you how much we love you!’

Authorities had already identified 54-year-old Stacie Fang, as one of the deceased, on Friday. 

Fang’s body was recovered on Thursday and she was the first victim publicly identified.   

Fang, a New York native, was pulled from the debris and rushed to Aventura Hospital and Medical Center, but died of her injuries soon after.  

Fang’s 15-year-old son Jonah Handler survived the tragedy after being trapped under the frame of his bed. 

He was dramatically rescued from the rubble with the help of a passing dog walker and as he was pulled from the rubble he begged rescuers ‘please don’t leave me,’ the New York Times report

Fang’s family released a statement paying tribute to her on Friday afternoon. 

‘There are no words to describe the tragic loss of our beloved Stacie. The members of the Fang and Handler family would like to express our deepest appreciation for the outpouring of sympathy, compassion and support we have received,’ the statement said.

‘The many heartfelt words of encouragement and love have served as a much needed source of strength during this devastating time. On behalf of Stacie’s son, Jonah, we ask you now to please respect our privacy to grieve and to try to help each other heal.’ 

Pictures of Fang and her son hugging and enjoying a day at the beach were revealed by news station WPLG 10.   

After three days of search efforts officials said on Saturday evening that rescue workers have discovered a body and human remains, raising the confirmed death toll to five people. 

Officials have asked family members to submit DNA samples to help identify the human remains that they find. There are live DNA testing facilities on site to process identities. 

Meanwhile, as search efforts continued a video posted online shows a woman, who was not identified, making an emotional plea to DeSantis to do more at a meeting between officials and relatives at a ‘family reunification center’ set up at a hotel close to the scene of the tragedy. 

The woman slammed the current rescue mission saying it is ‘not enough’ and questioned how ‘nobody has emerged dead or alive’ from the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Miami Beach, more than 60 hours after the collapse.

She accused the Florida governor of keeping up appearances saying he is ‘going to take a nice picture’ while breaking ‘promises’ about the ongoing efforts to find those still unaccounted for.  

‘It’s impossible that in four days nobody has emerged dead or alive,’ she said during the tense meeting between officials and families desperately waiting for any news about their loved ones.

‘It’s not enough. Imagine if your children were in there. You’re going to leave here and you’re going to take a nice picture, and I know you’re doing everything you can but it’s not enough.’ 

Officials were able to pull two additional bodies from the rubble two days after the bodies of three victims were pulled from the wreckage overnight Thursday. 

Police have identified the families of three of the victims and are not releasing the names of the deceased at this time.   

On Saturday, officials said that rescue efforts were stalled by a fire in the rubble that was spreading and releasing smoke, but that first responders were continuing their search for survivors.  

While the search continues, questions also continue to mount over the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been avoided. 

A building official has said he was on the roof of the condo tower just 14 hours before it collapsed and saw ‘no inordinate amount of equipment or materials’ that would cause the fall, amid speculation that recent roof repairs may have been a contributing factor. 

However, the 12-story condo tower had been flagged for ‘major structural damage’ to the pool deck area and underground parking garage in a damning report almost three years before it collapsed, it has been revealed.   

It comes as:

• The search and rescue mission has been hampered by raging fires burning beneath the surface of the rubble
• Firefighters cannot locate the source of the fire and were forced to temporarily stop the search to build a trench in the rubble, from which they could safely search from 
• Miami-Dade Mayor Cava announced she was introducing an audit of all buildings aged 40 or over in the county to be completed within the next 30 days  
• Surfside Mayor called for the evacuation of residents living in the block’s sister building one block away 
• An alarming 2018 report shows a consultant engineer warned about ‘structural damage’ to pool area and underground parking garage three years before the collapse  
• 150 people are still unaccounted for including the first cousin of the former president of Chile and the president of Paraguay’s sister-in-law 
• Five people are confirmed dead with the first victim identified as Stacie Fang, the mom of a boy, 15, rescued from the rubble Thursday  
• Sources told DailyMail.com many people in the building were tourists from Latin America renting apartments while they traveled to the US to get COVID-19 vaccines  

With hope fading for the 150 people still unaccounted for, footage of the emotional meeting with the families of those missing showed the desperate mother begging with officials to get rid of ‘red tape’ to speed up the search as she said her daughter was in ‘perfect health’ so could still be alive beneath the debris.   

‘My daughter is 26 years old, in perfect health,’ she said as her voice cracked. 

‘She could make it out of there… days have gone by.’ 

She added: ‘It’s not enough. I’m not an engineer, I’m not a fire marshal, I don’t know the way to do this.

‘I’m a mother, I don’t know the best way to go about this… but it’s not enough.’  

The woman claimed that fire and rescue teams from Israel were being stopped from assisting in the mission by the state and local officials. 

‘Governor, fire chief, mayor I was promised yesterday and everybody else was promised that the Israelis would be allowed in and that they are here,’ she said.

‘I have since been informed they are not here and they are not working. You promised us… Time has gone by and promises are not being kept.’

The mother directed her comments at DeSantis saying the matter was under his control.

‘Governor, it’s in your control as I understand. You promised us and they are not here,’ she said. 

‘I want an answer, not a Band-Aid, not a Tylenol, not someone to massage my pain.’

Confrontation begins at 3:30 in below video

DeSantis remained silent for much of the exchange leaving Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah to respond to the concerns.

Jadallah explained that US rescue teams are just as qualified as Israeli teams and that it is not a matter of resource – but the precarious nature of the collapse site, meaning only a certain number of people can be on the debris at any given time. 

‘We are just as qualified as the Israel teams. We have an additional thousand just as qualified.

‘It doesn’t matter if they’re from Switzerland, from America, from Israel. I assure you we’re all certified the same way and we all want to get the individuals that are under the debris out.

‘But I can assure you that the number of personnel who can physically fit on this pile can only be a specific number.

‘We can’t put a thousand people on this pile.’

The woman directed her questions at DeSantis again.   

‘You gave us a promise and you’re not fulfiling it,’ she said. ‘Red tape is not important when my daughter is dying.’  

When the governor finally piped up, he deflected the issue back onto the operational crews on the ground who are working round the clock to try to find survivors.   

‘The state is not preventing that at all. They’re welcome to come. It’s an operational decision,’ he said.

‘If the Israeli team, if they can use that, they have 100 percent support from the state to do so.’

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also added that ‘if they come we will deploy them.’ 

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has sent members of the Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command search-and-rescue team to Florida to help in the search for survivors.  

Rivlin tweeted on Friday that he was praying for the victims of the tragedy.

‘We hope for the recovery of the survivors and send heartfelt condolences to those who have lost family members,’ Rivlin wrote on Twitter.   

Officials said Saturday the search and rescue mission has been increasingly hampered by raging fires burning beneath the surface of the rubble, sending thick smoke into the air.

Firefighters have been unable to locate the source of the fire and have taken to digging a trench in the rubble away from the flames that rescue teams can safely search for victims and survivors around. 

With questions mounting over the cause of the disaster, Surfside building official Jim McGuinness revealed Friday in an emergency town meeting he had inspected the roof just 14 hours before the building crumbled.   

McGuinness was inspecting work of replacing roof anchors, which are where window cleaners attach their equipment, reported the Palm Beach Post.

He insisted there ‘was no inordinate amount of equipment or materials or anything on that roof that caught my building official’s eye that would make it alarming as to this place collapsing.

Officials released an October 2018 report overnight Friday on the Surfside, Florida town website which revealed a consultant engineer warned back then that the Champlain Towers South building was in need of numerous repairs around the base of the structure ‘in a timely fashion.’

The structural field survey report specifically raised concerns about the pool deck area, in which the waterproofing was failing, and the underground parking garage which was riddled with ‘abundant’ cracking. 

Despite the apparent urgency of some of the recommendations, an attorney for the resident-led condo association told the New York Times this week that repairs were only about to begin – more than two and a half years after the inspection. 

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has vowed to ‘get to the bottom of what happened’ while local officials called for the evacuation of residents living in the block’s sister building.  

Engineer warned of ‘major structural damage’ to pool deck area and underground parking garage in damning report three years before collapsed

Consultant Frank Morabito carried out the inspection to assess the overall condition of the building and recommend any structural issues in need of repair, as the building neared its 40-year standing and in turn its need for recertification under local regulation. 

In the report, he warned that the ‘main issue’ was the pool deck and entrance drive area, where condo residents would enjoy the Miami sunshine by the pool.

Morabito wrote that the waterproofing below the pool deck and entrance drive was failing’ and ‘beyond its useful life and therefore must all be completely removed and replaced.’

The report warned that the failed waterproofing was ‘causing major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.’

‘Failure to replace the waterproofing in the near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially,’ it read. 

Morabito wrote that there had been a ‘major error’ in the original design of that area because the waterproofing was laid on a concrete slab that was flat, rather than sloped to allow water to run off.

The report recommended a list of repairs to the area including repairs to the concrete structure, ‘installing a new waterproofing membrane, protection board and drain panels on the new sloped surface’ among other changes. 

These changes would provide ‘extra protection for the existing reinforced concrete structure and allows future membrane repair/replacement to be completed more economically.’ 

In the underground parking garage, which sits partly beneath the pool deck, the report warned of ‘signs of distress and fatigue’ and ‘abundant cracking and spalling. 

‘Abundant cracking and spalling of varying degrees was observed in the concrete columns, beams, and walls,’ Morabito wrote.   

‘Several sizeable spalls were noted in both the topside of the entrance drive ramp and underside of the pool/ entrance drive/ planter slabs, which included instances with exposed, deteriorating rebar. 

Spalling refers to areas of concrete cracking or crumbling. 

The report also found that ‘many of the previous garage concrete repairs’ were ‘failing’ and ‘ineffective.’

Under the area beneath the pool deck in particular, the report noted that ‘new cracks were radiating from the originally repaired cracks.’ 

Morabito recommended that the entrance and pool deck area concrete slabs showing distress ‘be removed and replaced in their entirety.’ 

While the engineer wrote that ‘some of this damage is minor, most of the concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion.  

The report also lists a series of other issues including cracks in the concrete on balconies, water seeping through windows and balcony doors into the condos and ‘minor cracking’ in the roof.

The report does not warn that the building was at risk of collapse but states that the repairs would help in ‘maintaining the structural integrity’ of the building.

Photos of the damaged areas were included in the report. This week, the same areas of the building were seen looking unrecognizable, as rescue crews combed through the rubble looking for survivors.

Firefighters were seen wading through deep water in the parking garage during the search – in the area where several repairs were recommended almost three years earlier. 

Condo association attorney Kenneth Direktor told the Times the repairs ‘were just about to get started’ when the building collapsed. 

A permit for repairs to the roof was issued by the town just hours before the tragedy at around 1:30am Thursday.

Surfside issued the permit to ‘install roof safety anchors and provide stucco repairs’ and replace the existing roof on Wednesday.  

Two other permits were also issued for electrical repair and roof repair on the building last month. It is not clear whether any of the repairs were yet underway.  

Mayor calls for audit on all buildings over 40 years old – as residents of sister building are urged to evacuate

When asked about the report in Saturday’s press conference, Mayor Cava said officials were ‘interested in all the evidence that comes to light’ and said she had not been aware of the report. 

She said the priority was on making sure ‘other buildings are safe’ in the area and announced she was ordering a county audit of all buildings 40 years old or older to be completed within the next 30 days. 

The audit will ensure that every building has completed its recertification process and remediated any issues, she said.

Cava said she did not have numbers on how many buildings in the county would fall under the audit but said she knew of ‘one other building by this developer up the street’ – the sister building one block away.

She urged cities in the area to join her in carrying out such an audit.   

Cava told CNN ‘are going to get to the bottom of what happened at this particular building’.

‘Clearly, our buildings need to be structurally sound. We need to have regular reviews, and to the extent that we need to change laws, we will change laws, and we will make sure these things do not happen in the future,’ she said.   

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said it’s still ‘unclear what steps the building was taking to address those cracks’ warned about in the report.

He told the network he was yet to read the report but was going to get a copy that morning so he could ‘give out accurate information regarding that.’

‘I understand from our building official, that it was in the form of the 2018 email that came from an engineer regarding those cracks,’ he said, adding it’s ‘unclear right now exactly what was going on in that building.’

The condo tower was due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year and had recently undergone construction work on its roof.

It also emerged this week that a scientist had warned in a 2020 report that the development was sinking due to its position on reclaimed marshlands.

A team of federal experts was drafted in Friday to help state and local officials determine the cause of the collapse and Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt said the town had ‘engaged a structural engineer to inspect other buildings in Surfside.’  

But while officials are urging the public not to jump to conclusions, Surfside Mayor Burkett is urging residents of the sister building Champlain Towers North to evacuate out of ‘an abundance of caution’ as he admitted he ‘can’t tell them it is safe.’   

The North tower is located around a block away from the South tower. It also has 12 stories, was built in 1981 by the same developers.  

‘I don’t think people need to live with the possibility, or the thought that their building may collapse’, he told CNN. 

‘It had the same developer, it probably had the same materials, they probably had the same plans, and people are asking me is the building safe, and I can’t tell them it is safe.’ 

Burkett on Friday told WSVN he would be recommending people leave the building. 

Rescue workers are hampered by fire underneath the rubble 

While questions are mounting over the cause of the collapse, the search entered its third day Saturday, with hopes of finding more people alive fading by the hour.   

No more survivors or victims have been found in more than 24 hours – since overnight Thursday – and rescue teams are now battling with a deep fire beneath the rubble. 

Mayor Cava gave the grave update Saturday morning: ‘The numbers are the same as they were yesterday.’ 

‘We’re facing incredible difficulties with this fire,’ she said.

‘The fire has been going on. It’s a very deep fire and it is incredibly difficult to locate the source of the fire.’

Cava said the ‘brave’ fire and rescue teams have been ‘working round the clock’ in the hunt for survivors and victims but the fire has been ‘hampering’ efforts.   

Rescue crews are using infrared technology, foam, water and other tactics to try to reduce the fire and the smoke but, the mayor said, ‘it’s very difficult to isolate the source of the fire and therefore stop it.’  

Teams had to stop the search at one point to build a trench in the rubble from which they can safely search for survivors and victims from.  

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a press conference Saturday morning that raging fires beneath the surface of the rubble have hampered the search for survivors and victims, leaving rescue teams grappling with ‘very challenging circumstances.’ 

‘The fire department has been fighting these fires all night,’ he said.

The fires are ‘smoldering’ and the smoke in the air is now ‘very thick’ which has ‘obviously created quite an obstacle’ to carrying out the search, he said.  

Rescue workers no longer hearing sounds under the rubble as search continues

A rescue worker trying to find survivors in the rubble said Friday that the tapping sounds heard Thursday in the wreckage had ‘dissipated’.

Dr. Howard Lieberman, a trauma surgeon with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue task force, told CNN that rescue crews heard ‘some tapping’ yesterday – or noise indicating that some of the victims may still be alive.

Rescue crews ‘did hear some tapping – there was some noise,’ he said.    

But he said that the tapping had ‘dissipated’ by Friday. Still, he said, crews hadn’t given up hope.

‘We haven’t really heard anything in a while now, but that’s not to say that there’s still not people trapped that are alive,’ he told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta. ‘As time’s running out they might be getting a little more sick or ill – not as vocal as before – but, like I said, we’re going to keep searching.’

Rescuers wouldn’t stop until ‘every stone is removed,’ he said. 

‘I think these guys, you know, that’s their mindset also: They’re just going to keep going, keep going, keep going until, like I said, every stone is turned over and all the rubble is removed,’ Lieberman said.

He added: ‘We’re seeing stuffed animals, teddy bears, boxed of diapers, a child’s bunk bed, and we’re finding a lot of pictures, family pictures.’

‘It’s a little bit more emotional than going somewhere, where you know there’s no one, let’s say for a hurricane where they had enough warning and they had evacuation time and they got out.’

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said: ‘Any time that we hear a sound, we concentrate in that area,’ 

‘It could be just steel twisting, it could be debris raining down, but not specifically sounds of tapping or sounds of a human voice,’ Jadallah said.  

The first victim of the Miami condo tower disaster was identified Friday as the mother of a 15-year-old boy who survived the wreckage. 

Stacie Fang, 54, died Thursday when the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, near Miami Beach, suddenly collapsed around 1:30am that morning. 

She was the mother of a 15-year-old boy who was dramatically rescued from the rubble with the help of a passing dog walker.    

Buffeted by gusty winds and pelted by intermittent rain, two heavy cranes removed debris from the pile using large claws Friday, creating a din of crashing glass and metal as they picked up material and dumped it to the side.

Once the machines paused, firefighters wearing protective masks and carrying red buckets climbed atop the pile to remove smaller pieces by hand in hope of finding spots where people might be trapped. 

Some of the building remained smoldering – and firefighters used crane trucks to spray water on the crumbled structure where intermittent fires had popped up.

In a parking garage, rescuers in knee-deep water used power tools to cut into the building from below.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said crews were doing everything possible to save as many people as they could.

‘We do not have a resource problem, we have a luck problem,’ he said.

The search has not yet transitioned to recovery, though some family members waiting at a reunification center have given DNA samples in case they are needed to help identify victims, CNN reported.

Miami Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava told The New York Times that rescuers were using cameras, dogs and sonar equipment to look for survivors. 

‘They are in the tunnels, they’re in the water, they’re on top of the rubble pile,’ she said. The pile’s instability made the work that much more delicate and dangerous.

She noted that the instability of the rubble pile made rescue efforts dangerous as crews ‘can’t dislodge pieces of debris that could injure them in the process. 

‘They can’t dislodge debris that could possibly make it more difficult to continue the search,’ she had said earlier on Friday.

Experts have said that rescue efforts remain hopeful because people have been known to survive for weeks underneath rubble piles.

Dr. Mike Cirigliano, a doctor of internal medicine in Philadelphia, told WTXF-TV that people can survive in so-called ‘lean-tos’ where a pocket of space within the rubble allows them an oxygen supply.

He said that in some cases survivors can even last on a supply of water as rainwater can seep into lean-tos, according to the outlet. 

A Haitian man survived two weeks underneath a crumbled building after the devastating 2010 earthquake, according to CNN.

At a news conference on Friday night, Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said there are currently four task force teams working on search and rescue as teams from Mexico and Israel arrived on Friday morning to help with the efforts. 

He did not give an exact number for how many personnel from Mexico and Israel had been sent.

Cominsky said crews will be using heavy equipment such as cranes to help move debris on top of the sonar equipment, dogs and video cameras that they have already been using.

He said at the news conference that the main focus has been on sifting through debris underneath the parking garage.

‘Any glimpse of hopes that we have, any signals that we see that’s where want our primary focus. This is where we’ve been focused with the operation and looking for those voids,’ he said.

Rescue crews have also formed ‘bucket brigades’ to clear debris while using sonar devices to identify any signs of life, CBS News reported.

Each rescue team has a doctor like Lieberman to accompany them to aid any potential survivors and rescuers if they happen to be injured during their rescue efforts. 

‘They remove a layer at a time. So basically, they are sort of delayering the pile. So they take off one layer at a time. We go in, we search, see if we can find anything. If not, they take off another layer,’ Lieberman told the outlet.

However, Dave Downey – a retired Miami-Dade fire chief – told CBS News that rescuers are ‘essentially looking for needles in a haystack.’ 

‘While this building came down relatively straight, they’re not — victims and survivors are not going to be located in the exact area where the building used to stand,’ he said. 

Mayor Cava said at a news conference on Friday night that rescue efforts will continue through the night as 159 people still remain unaccounted for after the collapse.

‘We’re going to have more resources to pay for this expensive search and rescue and to give us access to more teams for the rescue later, for the clearance of the rubble and for the assistance for the families, as they put their lives back together,’ Cava said.

She added: ‘We’re here, we’ll continue, and please stand by us. Stand by us, as we stand by the families.’

Cava told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she continues to have hope survivors will be rescued ‘because our first responders tell me they have hope.’

‘They are the ones on the ground. They are in the tunnels, they’re in the water, they’re on top of the rubble pile. They’re helping to sift through using the cameras, the dogs the sonar and they say they have hope,’ she said.

Rescuers hit a complication in efforts on Friday as they worked to extinguish a ‘deeply rooted fire’ under the structure, fire officials said.

Miami Dade Fire Rescue posted a warning to residents on Friday night about ‘smoky conditions’ after the building collapse.

‘If you live near the area of the #SurfsideBuildingCollapse, you may be experiencing smoky conditions, which can affect those with respiratory conditions. Please stay indoors, keep your windows and doors closed, and run your a/c by recirculating the air inside your home,’ the agency tweeted.

Patricia Mazzei, a reporter for The New York Times, tweeted that ‘the smoke tonight was rough’ while Fox News reporter Lauren Blanchard described the air quality as ‘thick’ and said that it ‘burns.’

‘The wind continues to blow it in waves – sometimes it thins out where we are … but then it kicks back up,’ Blanchard tweeted.

According to research from USA Today, the most common and successful methods used to try to locate survivors include acoustic detection and dogs that can sniff out living survivors.

The outlet noted that aerial drones utilizing cameras and other sensors help rescue teams monitor the collapse to find pockets where it’s safe to enter the debris. 

Rescuers will often also use data from smartphones and phone service providers which can show if a missing person was in the area at the time of the disaster.

Even more usefully, search teams can use radar and microwave technology to more accurately pinpoint where survivors may be, according to University of Buffalo professor Joana Gaia.

She described the technology to USA Today as being similar to ‘the technology in cars that beeps when you’re close to hitting something.’

‘Responders are operating on a speed rather than accuracy standpoint,’ Gaia said.

‘They think: ‘If I think a body is there, I don’t care how accurate the signal is. I’m just going to try to go save the person.”

David Proulx, a vice president at defense contractor Teledyne FLIR which specializes in thermal sensing, told USA Today that robotics can be ‘incredibly useful’ in detecting survivors underneath the ground.

‘Once you get into that subterranean realm, ground robotics become incredibly useful. It can safely go where humans can’t,’ Proulx told USA Today.

The outlet reported that at least one company is shipping a ground robot from California to help with the search.

In a press release on Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that federal emergency aid has been made available to the state of Florida to supplement state and local recovery efforts.

The action from President Joe Biden authorized FEMA ‘to coordinate all disaster relief efforts, which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population.’ 

‘Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency,’ the news release reads. 

The agency said that it would provide assistance for debris removal and emergency protective measures under the Individuals and Households Program under the Stafford Act/

Thomas J. McCool has been named as the Federal Coordinating Officer for federal response operations for the affected area.

Experts are sent to the scene to examine the collapse after 2020 report warned the 12-story building was sinking one year ago  

While the focus now is on the hunt for survivors, questions are being asked about what caused the 1980s building to suddenly collapse. 

A team of scientists and engineers from the federal government agency responsible for leading investigations into building failures is now being sent to the collapse site to gather information on what went wrong.   

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) told The Hill the experts will ‘work with federal, state and local authorities to identify and preserve materials that might be helpful in understanding why the collapse occurred.’ 

The assistance from the group, set up after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, comes as speculation continues to build over whether this week’s tragedy could have been avoided.    

It emerged Thursday that scientists had warned that the condo building was sinking and in a potentially dangerous condition one year before it collapsed, while it was due a safety certification review for the first time in 40 years. It had also just undergone improvements to its roof. 

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the collapse and Miami-Dade police have opened an investigation – though Mayor Cava said ‘there has been no evidence found of foul play.’ 

Surfside Town Manager Andy Hyatt told CNN Friday morning there had been no concerns about the building’s safety prior to the disaster but said the town would carry out ‘due diligence’ to determine both what caused it and to ensure other buildings in the area are safe. 

However, it has emerged that a 2020 study from Florida International University found the Champlain Towers South sea-view condo development was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s because it sits on reclaimed wetlands. 

The oceanfront building was also due to have its safety recertified for the first time in 40 years this year which included the need for ‘extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete’ on parts of the structure. 

It has also been revealed that the tower had recently undergone construction work on its roof, sparking fears this may have piled on additional weight to the sinking structure.  

Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, told USA Today he knew instantly which building had collapsed when he heard news reports because he had studied the building for the report published last year.

‘I looked at it this morning and said ‘Oh my god.’ We did detect that,’ he said.  

Wdowinski said he found that Champlain Towers South was sinking at a rate of around 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s due to its position on wetlands but that rate could have slowed down or sped up since then.

However, the land’s slow sinking alone would not have caused the building to collapse, he said.

‘It was a byproduct of analyzing the data. We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement,’ Wdowinski told USA Today.

The paper was published in April 2020 in the academic journal Ocean and Coastal Management and was part of a wider look at how buildings in Miami were sinking generally with rising sea levels caused by climate change. 

‘In some locations, as in the eastern part of the city, the detected subsidence [sinking] is of a 12-story high condominium building,’ the paper ominously warns.

It’s not immediately clear if the 12-story building referenced in the paper is the condo that collapsed. It’s also not clear if any officials took note of the paper when it comes to shoring up any dangerous conditions in the area.

In a video posted by FIU, Wdowinski said hundreds of buildings can be sinking bit-by-bit – and hundreds of buildings can have cracks, not just in Miami. 

What would cause one to collapse would be an engineering problem, he said.

Wdowinski, who has previously conducted a number of land subsidence studies including one in Mexico City, noted in the video on Thursday that the tragic Mexico City Metro overpass collapse on May 3 that killed 26 people and injured 79 others had happened in an area where he had previously detected land subsidence.  

The Champlain Towers South development was built in 1981 by the late developer Nathan Reiber’s company Nattel Construction at 8777 Collins Avenue in the southeast corner of Surfside, but the structure hasn’t been updated significantly since then.  

It had a few two-bedroom units currently on the market at the time of the collapse with asking prices of $600,000 to $700,000. Some have sold for more than $2 million.

The area is a mix of new and old apartments, houses, condominiums and hotels, with restaurants and stores serving an international combination of residents and tourists.  

Local officials have said the condo block was right in the middle of going through a recertification process required by Miami Dade building code – which dictates that buildings have to be re-certified every 40 years. The building was due to be recertified for the first time since its construction this year.

Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the Champlain Towers South Association, told The Miami Herald on Thursday that to prepare for the recertification process an engineer had been hired to plan ‘structural and electrical’ updates but that work hadn’t started yet.

He told The New York Times that the building had been about to undergo ‘extensive repairs for rusted steel and damaged concrete’ but that he had seen nothing to suggest the collapse was related to issues identified in the engineering review.

Direktor told The Washington Post on Thursday that the building was ‘thoroughly inspected’ recently as part of the recertification process and that a report on the inspection was sent to town authorities.

He described the report’s findings as ‘fairly typical’ for a building of its age and ‘did not cast doubt on its structural integrity,’ according to the outlet.  

Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett said roof renovations were being done on the property but that they should not have contributed to the collapse.

‘The building has literally pancaked. That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean to me that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive,’ he said.

He instead described the collapse as a ‘catastrophic failure’ of the building. 

‘It’s hard to imagine how this could have happened,’ Burkett said.  

‘Buildings just don’t fall down… There’s no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls the supports out from underneath.’ 

He suggested that potential causes could be the result of the foundations being washed out or a sinkhole. 

Bruce Masia of KW Property Management & Consulting told Florida’s Biz Journal that the ongoing roof renovation on the property could have added extra weight that the building couldn’t withstand. 

However, Surfside Vice Mayor Tina Paul told The Washington Post on Thursday that Champlain Towers South passed a roof inspection on Wednesday – the day before the collapse. 

Jeff Rose, a contractor whose parents live in the building, told the Miami Herald that he had done renovations for some of the condos and that work on the roof had started about six weeks ago.

He added that some concrete restoration work was also being done to fix old or damaged concrete but that the concrete work was not out of the ordinary.   

Some people in Surfside had previously raised concerns about the integrity of the aging building. 

Barry Cohen, 63, the former vice mayor of Surfside, said he raised concerns years ago about whether nearby construction might be causing damage to the building after seeing cracked pavers on the pool deck.

In 2015, a resident also sued in 2015 claiming building management did nothing to repair cracks from water damage.  

 ‘Praying for a miracle’: Pregnant mother of a one-year-old daughter and married father-of-three who had been celebrating his birthday are among missing after Miami condo collapse

Distraught friends and family are ‘praying for a miracle’ as at least 159 people are still missing after a 12-story apartment block collapsed in Miami in a disaster feared to have killed scores of sleeping residents.

Among the missing is the first cousin of the former president of Chile and current UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.