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Members of an urban South Florida search and rescue team are searching for potential survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body on Saturday. Joe Riddell/Getty Images Hide the caption
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Members of an urban South Florida search and rescue team are searching for potential survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South apartment building on Saturday. Rescuers found an additional body on Saturday.
Joe Riddell / Getty Images
Rescue workers in Surfside, Florida, found a body among the rubble of the partially collapsed Champlain South Towers on Saturday, bringing the death toll to five.
Authorities have also notified the families of three previously unidentified victims, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levin Cava reported Saturday night, changing the total to 156 missing and 130 missing.
Levin Kava told reporters that rescue efforts had made some progress. A deep-rooted fire in the rubble that was hampering rescuers was put out, allowing personnel to search more effectively among the wreckage.
Rescuers are continuing a “rigorous search-and-rescue strategy,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Kominsky said. He said that responders were able to contain the fire and reduce the smoke on Saturday morning. He said they are continuing to search for people using sonar, canines and video equipment.
Authorities are collecting DNA samples from family members of the missing to help identify potential victims.
Meanwhile, residents of the atop a building, the North Champlain Towers, are also concerned about the building’s safety. Charles Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, told reporters that the north building was constructed around the same time, by the same developer, and “maybe built with the same plans, and probably built with the same materials.”
Burkett said an official at the Surfside building inspected the Champlain North towers and the “rapid review” found nothing out of order. But it wasn’t a “deep dive”. That will likely take two weeks to complete, he said, and FEMA will be able to help residents with housing if they want to evacuate. But at the moment there is no mandatory evacuation order for the North Building.
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