Engineers plan to demolish the standing portion of the building ahead of the storm that’s expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds
“As soon as the preparation is ready, the site is secured and the team is ready to go, we will begin the demolition,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a news conference Sunday morning. She said the “top priority is that the building come down as soon as possible … and as safely as possible.”
Search efforts paused Saturday around 4 p.m. so engineers could secure the site and prepare for the demolition, which officials have said is crucial to allowing authorities to continue to look for survivors safely, eliminating the threat posed by the part of the structure that is still standing.
Officials did not provide a timeline for the demolition in a news conference Sunday morning — the 11th day since approximately 55 of the building’s 136 units collapsed early June 24, killing at least 24 people. As of Sunday, 121 people are still unaccounted for.
“We just miss them so much already, we wish this tragedy didn’t happen, and will always remember them,” Mejias said.
As of Saturday evening, 121 people remained unaccounted for in the tragedy, while 191 have been accounted for, Levine Cava said.
Race against the storm
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 15 counties Saturday — including Miami-Dade County — due to Tropical Storm Elsa.
“We’re preparing for the risk of isolated tornadoes, storm surge, heavy rainfall and flash flooding,” DeSantis said.
“The state has begun executing contingency plans for the Tropical Storm Elsa and Surfside co-response,” he added.
A tropical storm warning has been issued for the Florida Keys and a tropical storm watch is in effect for areas of southwest Florida.
Elsa was a Category 1 hurricane Friday and early Saturday, but weakened to a tropical storm as it took aim at the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Forecasters say the storm’s center will not directly impact Surfside, though the city could be affected by its outer bands, with wind gusts and rain starting in the area as early as Monday morning.
The potential for weather-related issues at the collapse site is influencing authorities’ decisions on the ground.
“We’re still very hopeful that we can do the demolition before the storm,” Levine Cava said Saturday night. “We are proceeding as quickly as we possibly can.”
Officials don’t yet know the exact timing of the demolition. “Engineers are on site and they’re still conducting their due diligence, so we don’t have an exact time frame,” she said.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, “The fear was that the hurricane may take the building down for us and take it down in the wrong direction, on top of the pile where we have victims.”
The demolition “will allow rescue workers to pour all over the entire site without fear of any danger from falling debris or falling buildings,” Burkett said.
Demolition plans
Search and rescue operations were briefly suspended on Thursday after engineers noted shifting on the debris pile that posed a danger to the rescue crews, officials said.
After operations resumed later that day, authorities confirmed in a news conference that demolition would likely be necessary in order to keep rescue crews and the collapse site safe for further searches.
A cross hangs among wilting flowers at a makeshift memorial near the Champlain Towers South.
Levine Cava announced Saturday the firm Controlled Demolition, Inc. will handle the demolition of the remaining Champlain Towers’ South structure.
“They have done other large demolitions,” Levine Cava said, adding that the company was “evaluating the scene right now.”
The governor expressed his support for the demolition plan ahead of Elsa’s impact on Saturday. “I think it’s the right thing to do. At the end of the day that building is too unsafe to let people go back.”
The governor believes it would be best for the building to be down before the storm arrives, saying, “With these gusts potentially, it would create a really big hazard.”
Levine Cava said the county won’t need to evacuate any additional buildings ahead of the demolition but they will be announcing a perimeter for the demolition area.
Burkett also assured residents Saturday that the demolition shouldn’t impact other buildings in the area.
Burkett said he’s taken calls from concerned citizens who are worried about potential impacts to their buildings from the demolition as well as environmental impacts from the debris.
Materials from the debris pile were tested by a company hired by the structural engineers and “there were no significant issues in the debris,” Burkett told reporters Saturday night.
Complaints over construction of high-rise
On Saturday, CNN learned the developer behind Eighty Seven Park, a high-rise recently erected next door to Champlain Towers South, offered the Surfside tower’s condominium board $400,000 amid complaints over the construction.
Construction on that building had been the source of complaints, including at least one from a condo board member to a Surfside building official in January 2019, documents obtained by CNN show.
Under the agreement sent by the group behind the luxury building, residents of Champlain Towers South would have had to release the developer from liability and the condominium board would have had to publicly support the development in letters sent to the town of Surfside and Miami Beach, where Eighty Seven Park was being built, in exchange for the payment, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The agreement was presented in 2019, according to the Washington Post, who first reported on it.
It was never signed by the Champlain Towers South condominium board, Max Marcucci, a spokesman for the board told CNN.
On Friday, Robert McKee, an attorney for one of the Champlain Towers South residents suing the condominium board, suggested in a court hearing that the civil plaintiffs should investigate the neighboring building, calling the developer “a potential significant possible defendant.”
CNN has reached out to the developer behind Eighty Seven Park for comment on the proposed agreement.
CNN’s Brian Todd, Natasha Chen, Kevin Conlon, Claudia Dominguez, Casey Tolan and Haley Brink contributed to this report.
