Days after workers at the site of a large condo building collapsed solemnly changed their goal from rescue to recovery, the death toll climbed to 86 confirmed fatalities on Saturday after the discovery of 7 more corpses.
Mayor Daniella Levine of Miami-Dade County stated Saturday morning that forty-three individuals are still missing.
She said in the Saturday press conference that they have the same goal: to provide closure to families who remain in the dark.
Crews stopped momentarily at 7 a.m. because of a lightning strike prior to restarting operations an hour later, Levine Cava said. Regardless of the anticipated rain, she said that recovery operations would continue as long as personnel stays safe. She asserted that hazardous material specialists are also responsible for monitoring the site’s air quality.
Mayor Charles Burkett asserted that there has been a great quantity of dust on-site as recovery operations continue at an intense pace.
Tina Paul, Surfside’s vice mayor, said that Israel’s on-site crews will depart on Saturday night and expressed gratitude for their efforts.
She said that they worked nonstop and 24 hours a day.
Paul said that crew members of Israel spent 8 hours retrieving a single corpse while according to Jewish law.
Alan Cominsky, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief, said Thursday that he expects the hunt for human remains to continue for many more weeks.
Levine Cava said Friday that a cat residing on the 9th level of the condo building was just discovered and reunited with its owners, a little bit of good news.
The family of a kid rescued from the debris has filed a lawsuit accusing the condominium association of disregarding a 2018 structural engineer study that indicated extensive structural deterioration.
Jonah Handler, 16, was sitting in his room with his mother two weeks ago when the walls of their apartment in Champlain Towers South caved in.
According to a lawsuit filed last week, they free-fell to what they believed was certain death. Stacie and Jonah amazingly survived after landing several stories below the collapsed condo building.
While Handler, fifteen years old, survived, his fifty-four years old mother, Stacie Fang, died shortly after being admitted to the hospital for treatment.
The lawsuit is one of 15 filed in the aftermath of the tower’s fall.
