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Here’s what you need to know: Tara Wirsaba prays at the parapet near the site of the collapse of the South Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, on Sunday, credit… Scott McIntyre for The New York Times
Chances of finding survivors among the wreckage of a collapsed apartment near Miami have receded, as the rescue operation of more than 150 people entered its fifth day on Monday and rescuers sailed through huge piles of wreckage to avoid aggravating conditions at the site.
While officials are still hopeful that there may be more survivors, rescuers have begun trying to prepare relatives of the missing for the possibility that their loved ones will not be found. No survivors have been pulled from the wreckage of the South Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, since Thursday, the day half of the 13-story building collapsed. Since then, nine bodies and human remains have been found, five of which have been identified.
More than 300 emergency personnel, including teams from Israel and Mexico, are working around the clock, and the Army’s Corps of Engineers has been called in.
On Saturday, teams began digging a huge trench more than 125 feet long and four stories deep to help find the missing residents. Surfside Mayor Charles W. Burkett said rescuers needed to be lucky after days of fires at the site and flooding slowed their efforts.
Experts warned Sunday that rescuers need to move slowly and deliberately because they don’t want to make the site more dangerous for them or the missing people.
And while officials have expressed hope that they may continue to find survivors, that possibility is dwindling every day. Rescuers have not yet found natural voids in the rubble that would create habitable spaces, and they have stopped hearing sounds that might indicate there have been survivors for days.
However, surveying the site and identifying the remains could take months, based on similar efforts in collapsed buildings, according to experts.
Relatives of the missing were bused to the site on Sunday afternoon.
They climbed in front of the Grand Beach Hotel, which served as the headquarters for those waiting for news of the missing.
Police escorted the buses, and upon their arrival, stinging smoke rose from the fires under the rubble where search teams had been working since Thursday morning. Relatives saw a crane lifting heavy pieces of the building and removing rubble in the garbage cans.
While Florida residents and viewers around the world were stunned by the sudden collapse, there were warnings early in 2018 of “significant structural damage” that needed to be addressed, according to emails between the contractor and the condo council. In these emails, which the city of Surfside has begun to issue, the engineer urged the council to fix the cracked columns and crumbling concrete, and estimated it would cost about $9 million.
Video explained by The New York Times in the video describing the stages of the collapse of a deadly building in Surfside, Florida, on Thursday. The video, which captures the south side of the building, appears to be a screen recording showing surveillance footage. CreditCredit … Erin Schaff / The New York Times
Until Thursday’s crash, that work had not been done. But the board borrowed about $12 million to do the work.
Over the weekend, while officials tried to publicly state that they had not given up on finding survivors, rescuers tried to privately inform relatives of the missing at a hotel reunion center that they were preparing for the worst.
“Just take with me what I have to say,” an official said during a Saturday briefing filmed in videos posted on social media. “You will drown. I understand it is very emotional. We do not necessarily find victims. We are finding human remains.”
Family members in the room could be heard crying, moaning and sniffing throughout the briefing while rescuers explained details of the search and where human remains were found.
“That’s what was frustrating a lot of rescuers,” the official said. “With the building collapsing – the pies collapsing – what we realize is that we are having a hard time finding some of the bodies that are still intact. Now what we find, again, are human remains.”
Partially Collapsed Champlain Towers South Building Credit … Maria Alejandra Cardona for The New York Times When Did It Happen?
Survivors said they awoke at around 1:30 a.m. Thursday with fire alarms, falling debris and a feeling of shivering on the ground.
How many people died?
At least nine people were killed. The authorities fear more deaths.
How many unaccounted for?
Officials said more than 150 people were still unaccounted for as of Sunday.
How many were saved?
About 35 people were rescued from the intact part of the building, and two were pulled out from under the rubble, said Ray Gadallah, the Miami-Dade Rescue Fire Chief’s assistant.
How tall was the building?
The tower was 13 stories high. About half of the 136 units collapsed.
When was it built?
It was constructed in 1981, according to county property records.
How many people live in Surfside, Florida?
The city north of Miami Beach has a population of about 5,600. It is a predominantly residential community, with several multi-storey apartment buildings along Surfside Beach on the Atlantic Ocean. The city has an Orthodox Jewish community and is also home to many retirees as well as immigrants from South America.
Rescuers continued their search for the victims of the Champlain Towers South apartment in Surfside, Florida, on Sunday, credit… Erin Schaaf/The New York Times
Amid the perilous search and rescue operation of the collapsed Champlain Towers South apartment building in Surfside, Florida, some have questioned why it took so long and whether there is any hope for those left inside.
Officials assured the public that the local research team, which was sent to disasters around the world and now works with Israeli and Mexican teams, was doing everything it could.
Experts and officials say the risks to rescuers and missing persons are clear and dictate that the process must be slow and deliberate.
Toxic chemicals and fire
“Inside there are everything from toxic chemicals to fire and smoke and all kinds of other hazards,” Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who visited the site Saturday, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “They have to be very careful. If they move one piece of armature here, the rest of the pile could collapse elsewhere and hurt the responders or hurt any survivors who might still be there.
The search continued after a fire that obstructed vision was brought under control.
Dogs, sonar and digging trenches
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava said experts are using dogs, sonar and cameras and have created trenches to navigate under the mound. One of the trenches is 125 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 40 feet deep.
Balance security and research
Each building collapse and tragedy presents its own challenges, but experts learn from each building and use the information to prevent others.
“It’s a very dangerous site at this point,” said Joseph Pfeiffer, the former chief responsible for counterterrorism and emergency preparedness at the New York City Fire Department, who was the first chief at the site on the September 11, 2001, attacks. “It’s a balance of safety and serious research.”
Mr. Pfeiffer, whose forthcoming book Ordinary Heroes will be released as a memoir for responding to attacks, helped coordinate the response to a range of emergencies and disasters. He said the teams were likely very vigilant about the risks of any further building collapse, movement of large pieces of debris or injury due to heavy equipment.
He added that Miami-Dade County has one of the best search and rescue teams in the country.
Timing is also important. It can be difficult to predict how long people will be trapped under the rubble. “The first few days are crucial,” he said. Every day, the chances of finding people are getting smaller. However, there is always hope. It is important to maintain hope until the point where reality must be faced.”
working months
“It really takes people with a strong will, a strong mind, a strong belly,” agreed Timothy McConnell, the former New Orleans fire chief who led the response to the collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel there in 2019. “It really takes people with a strong will, a strong mind, a strong belly,” he said of the search and rescue teams.
The collapse of a New Orleans building, which was under construction, killed three people and injured dozens in 2019. The search for survivors took days, and the process of clearing the rubble took more than a year. The last person’s remains were not recovered until about a year later.
One of the hardest things, McConnell said, is not closing down many families. “This is difficult,” he said.
He urged people who are impatient with the process to remember that it is a very difficult task. With heavy debris, the chance of making things worse for survivors trapped in the rubble, and smoke complicating matters, it can be risky.
“What they don’t understand is, do you know how much these things weigh?” He said about the wreck. “You may need 10 people to move a large piece of stone.” Some parts of the wreck may be too risky to excavate. “There were some areas that were unsafe for us to go into.”
Alfredo Lopez greets fellow parishioners after mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Surfside, Florida, on Sunday. Mr. Lopez, his wife Marianne and their son Gabriel were rescued from the South Champlain Towers. Credit … Scott McIntyre for The New York Times
Alfredo Lopez was racing to escape the crumbling South Champlain Towers on Thursday night when he immediately recognized the woman: It was a neighbor he had seen often in the hallway. But this time she was in her pajamas, shocked, in pain – something was wrong with her knee – and unable to move.
He remembers telling her, “You can’t stay here,” turning her over on his shoulder, continuing to move.
All he remembers now: plowing some bushes, a gate, a concrete block that was getting in his way. Somehow they ended up in the pool area of the building. Finally, they reached the beach. “For my life, I don’t know how it happened,” he said.
The woman wanted to stop as soon as she came ashore, but Mr. Lopez told her they couldn’t stop. They rested when they reached a lounge chair in an adjacent building. Thank God it’s light because I’m not really a tough guy,” said Mr. Lopez, 61, who runs an export business for heavy machinery. “But we made it.”
Mr. Lopez still struggled to process what had happened when he awoke to two loud explosions on Thursday night, looked out his apartment door and saw that there was nothing left of his hallway: no apartment to his left, no apartments ahead – only frightful silence and darkness.
The grief now, he said, “comes in the form of fits.”
“I’m fine and then – it’s overwhelming,” he said as he started crying. “All I have are PJs. I’m as if I should buy some clothes. I don’t have money. I don’t have credit cards. I don’t have ID. Nothing.”
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