‘Overwhelming Amount Of Grief’ as Fla. Rescue Effort Continues

South Florida Sun Sentinel

Confirmation of another four fatalities from the Surfside condo building collapse on Wednesday added to the tensions of relatives missing loved ones, and the determination of authorities to keep searching for possible survivors despite bad weather and dangerous conditions.

No one has been found alive since the hours after the Champlain Towers South disaster near Miami last Thursday, with the toll now up to 16 dead and 147 people unaccounted for.

“While there’s an overwhelming amount of grief there’s still the apprehension about not knowing for sure,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a late morning news conference, after meeting with affected family members. “Rest assured those [rescuers] are going to be working on that pile and it’s not going to stop. They [relatives] are going to get answers one way or another.”

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett promised: “This is going to go until we pull everybody out of there. This is our number one effort. ... I know the families appreciate that.”

With more rainy weather expected in the area, and the five-day forecast including two potential tropical disturbances, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is sending another team to back up rescuers in a contingency plan should crews be needed for a storm response in the state.

There will be no interruptions at the Surfside site where around-the-clock efforts are now in the seventh day.

“This is the attention of the state, of the country, and in some respects the world, and rightfully so,” DeSantis said.

News of the heightened response comes ahead of President Joe Biden’s and first lady Jill Biden’s planned visit to Surfside on Thursday to visit with the families of victims and rescue workers.

Hundreds of workers have helped to move more than 3 million pounds of concrete and debris so far in an effort that is extremely dangerous.

“I can’t overemphasize the risk that everyone’s taking right now,” said Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky. “And we all know why we’re doing it.”

Overnight, the teams had found some air pockets in the debris. Col. Golan Voch, a leader of an elite Israeli search team, told CNN that crews discovered “voids and tunnels” with pockets of air and large enough to crawl through.

Reports surfaced Tuesday about an alarming letter sent to homeowners on April 9 outlining how damage to the 12-story building’s basement garage had “gotten significantly worse,” amid other signs of an “accelerating” concrete failure since an inspection about 2 1/2 years earlier.

This revelation follows the opening of government investigations, the filing of multiple civil lawsuits and, in the coming months, the empaneling of a criminal grand jury, all with the aim of determining what caused the collapse, who to hold accountable, and how to prevent it from happening elsewhere.

The letter, first revealed by USA Today, informed residents the building’s roof had become “much worse” and required additional major repairs, with total price tag for all of the work soaring from about $9.1 million in 2018 to $16.2 million this year.

“A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by. But this is where we are now,” wrote Jean Wodnicki, president of the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, as confirmed to The Associated Press by a board spokesman.

These issues were first brought to light in a 2018 inspection by Morabito Consultants. That review found a “major error” in the design of the building, crumbling concrete columns in the garage area beneath the structure, and predicted that failure to fix the problems in the “near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”

State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said she will ask a grand jury to examine the condo collapse and related public safety issues. In a statement released Tuesday, Rundle acknowledged that the work to identify exactly what caused the collapse will not be quick process.

“It is painstaking and complicated work,” Rundle, in part, said in the statement. “I will not do anything to jeopardize their investigative findings which will hopefully prevent future tragedies like this from happening.”

But she doesn’t want to wait.

“To that end, I plan to request that our Grand Jury look at what steps we can take to safeguard our residents without jeopardizing any scientific, public safety, or potential criminal investigations,” the statement said.

Grand juries sometimes look at broader issues of public safety, with sub-par building codes coming into focus after Hurricane Andrew hit the region in 1992.

The latest lawsuit over the Surfside tower collapse was filed Monday by survivor Raysa Rodriguez, who owned Unit 907 and escaped the wreckage by making her way down a stairwell to safety. Her attorneys—the Moskowitz Law Firm, Jack Scarola and Chip Merlin—brought the class-action claim against the condo association, but noted, “There will be many people to blame for the tragic collapse.”

“These failures could be originated from the unfit material used during the construction of the building, progressed through the years due to the neglect of the Building Association/Management, and in the end resulting in the collapse of the building,” the lawyers wrote in the case filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

Authorities say they have no plans to halt rescue efforts they say are unprecedented for an emergency in Florida aside from a hurricane response. More than 400 workers from across the state and from Israel and Mexico have joined the crusade.

Usually six or seven squads, each with six members, rotate in and out every 45 minutes during 12-hour shifts. They already have moved over 3 million pounds of concrete rubble, officials said.

With relatives imploring the rescuers to increase the pace, the dangerous work has persisted through rainstorms and sweltering heat.

“We are doing everything humanely possible and then some to get through this tragedy and we are doing it together,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Wednesday.

Levine Cava said checking the list of those still missing continues to be a challenging task. Detectives are working through the list to provide a more accurate number by checking for any possible duplicates.

Levine Cava said multiple family members and distant friends are calling to report the same person, some are calling from overseas and sometimes they may only have the name or unit number for a person, not both.

“The numbers are fluid and will continue to change,” she said, noting that 139 residents have been counted as safe.

The mayor also said a building audit in the county is underway as a result of the Surfside catastrophe. The review includes structures four stories and taller in the county that are approaching the 40-year recertification mark, along with 10 buildings that recently completed that process and 14 buildings in unincorporated Miami-Dade County that meet those guidelines. Any possible life-threatening issues with those structures will be addressed, Levine Cava said.

Already, officials have ordered the immediate closure of four balconies in a building in the northeast part of Miami-Dade County.

The mayor also said she was meeting with numerous building safety experts on a mission “to ensure a tragedy like this will never happen again.”

On Wednesday, the city of North Bay Village announced that Hilda Noriega, the 92-year-old mother of Police Chief Carlos Noriega, had perished in the disaster.

“The Noriegas have lost their ‘heart and soul’ and ‘matriarch’ of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for,” the city said in a statement.

With the death toll rising to 16, authorities have released the names of 12 victims so far. All but one was found dead at the site.

Families and individuals who have been displaced were told they can register at SurfsideReunite.com, an alert system created by the state of Florida, Miami-Dade County and the town of Surfside to provide updates and access to resources. People can register for alerts by visiting SurfsideReunite.com or by calling the toll-free number 833-930-3701.

Meanwhile, most residents of Champlain Towers North have remained, saying they are confident their building is better maintained and doesn’t have the same problems with cracking in support beams and in the pool area, according to the AP.

Burkett said nothing was found in an inspection that indicates the almost 40-year-old 12-story tower is at risk of a similar collapse.

That hasn’t convinced everyone.

Rebecca Weinstock, a snowbird who bought a sixth-floor condo in the north building four years ago with her husband, told an AP reporter she is “petrified of returning” and is staying in New York, for now.

“I am out my investment, I am out my apartment, I am out my future, but we are talking about lives here,” she said, adding she’ll wait for a safety check by two independent engineers from outside South Florida.

North tower residents have been offered federal assistance if they wish to temporarily relocate.