Surfside, Florida, apartment collapse: ‘There’s still hope,’ rescue team leader says as search enters seventh day of Florida building collapse

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“I can tell you that none of us have given up hope,” said Capt. Eddie Alarcon, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Team Leader. “We’re going to walk into that pile and start banging away and slashing away in hopes that we can find someone…We always pray for someone to be alive, but at least that gives some closure to families waiting to listen to loved ones” .

Colonel Golan Fach, commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit, said US and international teams are searching for bedrooms buried under 13-16 feet of concrete.

Alarcon said he has no idea how long the rescue and recovery efforts will take, especially given that the round-the-clock work has barely scratched the surface of debris removal. But he said the crews were motivated by an understanding of the families’ perspective.

“What should I do? How hard would it be to work to save our family members if something like this happened?” CNN’s Anderson Cooper told. “I just want (the families) to know that we’re doing everything we can.”

Many in the community are looking for ways they can help those affected as well.

More than $1.9 million has been raised to help those affected as of Tuesday, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, and some of that donation to SupportSurfside.org has already been distributed to at least a dozen families in need and a handful of nonprofits.

The tennis center in the building has been changed. Now, it serves as a respite for first responders, adorning the walls with flowers and pictures to commemorate those who lost their fate and the 12 who died.

Babysitter Laura Hernandez used to spend hours in that court with Graciela Cattarossi while her daughter Stella was playing with the Henandez babysitter, she told WSVN affiliate CNN. Both were reported missing, along with her parents and sister.

“In September I’ll be back with the kids, but Stella and Grace won’t be there. It makes my heart break,” Hernandez told the station.

Escape and rescue

Those who survived the avalanche told harrowing stories of their escape, Eliana Montegodo, 64, woke up at midnight Thursday to a strange sound. Then she saw a crack creeping through her wall.

She ran barefoot from her sixth-floor unit down the stairs, heard a thunderous noise and climbed up several walls as she darted toward safety, according to CNN affiliate WPLG.

“I started going down quickly, and I heard a crack, a crack, a crack,” she said. “I start screaming, Come on God, I want to see my son, I want to see my grandson. Don’t let me die in this state.”

As soon as she got out, she called her son to tell him that she was fine, but that the building behind her had collapsed.

“Three seconds separate me from life to death. Three seconds,” she told the station.

Sarah Nir’s daughter was going to shower and her son was busy when Nir heard what sounded like a building noise at about 1:10am, she went to talk to the security guard about the noise at night but was interrupted by a big bang and the garage collapse.

She told CNN that she ran back to take her family, and they ran away together. Two loud beeps later and all they could see were white clouds of dust.

Neighbors drag Esther Gurfinkel, 88, out of the building as she slowly heads down the stairs.

When she told Albert Aguero, the man who bore her, that she lived to be 88 and did not need rescuing, he told her “No, you’re going to make it to your 89th birthday.” WPLG affiliate.

“I saw the sky,” said Gurfinkel. “I knew I would be safe.”

Engineers looking for ‘trigger events’

Because of the collapse, building audits are taking place across the county, and that audit has already revealed serious problems, said Daniela Levine Cava, the mayor of Miami-Dade.

“Just last night, our building officer notified one of these properties, a building in Northeast Dade, that four balconies should be closed immediately to residents due to safety conditions,” Levin Cava said at a news conference.

“We are taking rapid action to identify and immediately address any outstanding issues with buildings that have not yet completed the 40-year certification process – and that is our priority now,” she said.

Levine Cava said she expects all issues that come up in the audit to be addressed within weeks.

Surfside commissioner Eliana Salzauer told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the condo association has a report on the condition of the building, and thinks they haven’t done enough.

“In hindsight, they should have made more noise,” she said. “They had this report, and they had a report, which said very clearly, ‘Your building is in a bad state.'”

Condominium Council attorney Donna Dimaggio Berger told Cuomo on Monday that she didn’t think the building was in poor condition before it collapsed.

“We have months and years to research what happened, and we’ll do it. The board is in the process of bringing in an engineer to try and figure out what happened, and they’ll assess who’s responsible.”

Allen Kilsheimer, a structural engineer who investigated the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombing, was hired by the city to investigate the collapse.

Kilsheimer told CNN reporter John Berman that engineers are looking to find out what caused the “crash.”

Kilsheimer said the investigation will take a long time and that they will look into all possible scenarios

Kay Jones, Camille Forrest, Jason Hanna, Gregory Lemos and Holly Silverman of CNN contributed to this report.

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