Miami apartment death toll rises to 36 as prop families lose ‘tragic loss’ | Miami apartment collapse

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Miami-Dade Mayor Daniela Levine Cava said the families of more than 100 people still missing in the South Florida condominium collapse are preparing for news of a “tragic loss.”

The search for victims in the dangerous pile of rubble in a Miami-area high-rise reached its 14th day on Wednesday, with the official death toll at 36, after eight more bodies were recovered on Tuesday, the most in a single day. since the disaster.

Joe Biden, who visited the area last week, called the mayor on Tuesday to offer his continued support, as authorities cast an increasingly somber tone about any chances of finding someone miraculously still alive in the wreckage.

“I think everyone will be ready when it’s time to move on to the next stage,” she said.

Several hundred mourners gathered Tuesday at a church in Miami Beach for the first funeral for victims of the June 24 avalanche.

Marcos Guara, 52, his wife Ana Guara, 42, and their daughters Lucia, 10, and Emma, ​​four, are remembered as a close-knit family who loved to stroll on the beach and spend time together.

All four were killed when half of the 12-storey South Champlain Towers building suddenly collapsed in the early morning hours as most residents were sleeping.

“Who would have thought a few weeks ago that our community had so many ties to one small building in a small corner of Florida called Surfside,” Marcos Guara’s cousin Peter Milian said during the family’s memorial service.

The search for more victims continues despite the approach of Tropical Storm Elsa, which is expected to develop into a hurricane before hitting the northern coast of Florida later Wednesday.

Meteorologists said Surfside will likely survive the worst of the storm, but its approach prompted local officials to demolish a still-standing section of the building on Sunday night over concerns it could be blown away by high winds.

Lightning brought by Elsa forced search and rescue teams to halt operations for some time on Tuesday. Officials said their mission could be halted again before the storm passes, as teams working around the clock rummage through the precarious pile of debris with a range of methods ranging from heavy lifting equipment and manually sorting the rubble into buckets.

The researchers found no new signs of survivors, and although the authorities said their mission was still geared toward finding people alive, they looked more distressed.

“Right now, we are in a search and rescue mode,” County Sheriff Freddy Ramirez said at a Tuesday evening news conference.

“Our primary goal now is to close families,” he added.

Meanwhile, Florida officials said they had “significant concerns” about the structural integrity of another apartment complex near the Champlain Towers South building, which collapsed nearly two weeks ago, killing at least 36 people.

Charles Burkett, Mayor of Surfside, said Tuesday that a review is being conducted at Champlain Towers North, the sister complex of the 12-story condo tower, which still stands near the ruins.

Burkett told reporters that Towers North “is essentially the same building, built by the same developer at the same time, with the same plans, and possibly with the same materials” as the Towers South building.

“Since we don’t know why the first building fell, we have major concerns about that building and the residents in it,” he said.

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