Search and rescue in Florida building collapse to end, shift to recovery ops

Mayor of Florida’s Miami-Dade County on Wednesday said that the search for survivors in the apartment condo that partially collapsed two weeks ago was being called off. The search and rescue operations would be shifted into a recovery effort, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Wednesday. Levine Cava said that the decision to make the transition was ‘extremely difficult’. She said that the shift would formally take place at midnight.

“At this point, we have truly exhausted every option available to us in the search and rescue mission,” Levine Cava said.

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A part of the 12-story Champlain Towers South had collapsed on June 24 with dozens of residents sleeping inside. The official death toll from the accident stands at 54, while 86 people are still unaccounted for. Levine Cava said investigators would continue to work to verify whether each of them had been in the building when it collapsed.

An investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the collapse.

Since the day of the collapse, no survivors have have been found yet. Dozens of rescuers, engineers and specialists, including teams from Israel and Mexico, aided in the search along with sniffer dogs and heavy equipment. So far, the rescue teams have removed 124 tonnes of debris, officials said on Tuesday.

Over the weekend, a controlled explosion was carried out to demolish the remaining part of the building. This had resulted in the rescue teams being able to reach new areas in the pile of debris.

Survivors reported being awakened around 1.30 am on June 24 by what sounded like cracks of thunder that shook their rooms.

“It was like an earthquake,” Janette Aguero, who escaped from the tower’s 11th floor with her family, told AFP.

A 2018 report released by city officials revealed fears of “major structural damage” in the complex, from the concrete slab under the pool deck to columns and beams in the parking garage.