SURFSIDE, Fla. — Four more victims of the Surfside collapse were recovered by rescue teams overnight and into the day Friday, said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, raising the death toll to 22 as first responders continued the search amid the threats of shifting rubble underfoot, falling debris overhead and a hurricane in the forecast.
The mayor also said during a late afternoon briefing that she authorized the demolition of what remains standing of the Champlain Towers South building, though the timeline or exact plans remained uncertain.
One of the four victims found was the 7-year-old daughter of a city of Miami firefighter, Levine Cava said at a briefing Friday. The other victims were not identified.
Though the passing days have been difficult for families of the missing and rescuers working long hours, the mayor said Thursday’s discovery was especially tough.
“It was truly different and more difficult for our first responders,” Levine Cava said.
The challenges facing first responders into the ninth day of search and rescue remained daunting. Thunderstorms and intermittent downpours have destabilized the two-story pile of rubble, while cracks and shifting debris threaten to topple the unstable portion of the tower that remains upright.
Despite those obstacles, Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett is pressing Levine Cava to consider demolishing the building, sooner rather than later and perhaps ahead of Elsa’s potential arrival.
“If the building is a problem, we need to eliminate the problem,” said Burkett, adding that the storm could force it down in the wrong direction.
But Levine Cava said engineers and experts advising her have said a quick timetable won’t work.
“We are proceeding quickly, but we cannot bring that building down without a very, very careful demolition plan,” she said.
Search and rescue teams were forced to pause their work for 15 hours Thursday, until structural engineers determined it was safe to dig again. The pause exasperated families of the missing. Some asked emergency managers Friday morning if they could confirm media accounts that rescuers had heard voices in the rubble.
Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said the only voice rescuers have heard was a woman under rubble the morning of the collapse on June 24, according to a video of the private meeting posted on social media Friday. The chief said the team’s failure to save her life had caused them mental anguish.
“Nothing has changed regarding the voices,” he told anguished family members.
On the same video site later in the day Jadallah said the county is considering two demolition plans, one that would take the structure down and stop the search only for a few hours and another that would take longer and involved cranes taking the building apart piece by piece. He also said if a strong enough storm hits Surfside, it’s a possibility that the remaining standing structure could tumble over.
Rescue teams on Friday were limited to a small quadrant on the eastern end of the rubble pile as engineers warned that loose concrete on the upper floors of the standing structure posed too big a risk.
First responders have not found a survivor since the hours after the partial collapse of the condo tower when they pulled a 15-year-old boy from the rubble.
The body of the 7-year-old victim recovered Thursday was carried away from the site by her father, uncle and the rescuers who helped dig her out. The child and her firefighter father have not been identified, though Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban confirmed that the child of a first responder had been recovered.
“Our hearts and prayers are with the families affected by this horrific tragedy. We can confirm that a member of our city of Miami Fire Department family has lost his 7-year-old daughter in the collapse. She was recovered last night by members of our Urban Search and Rescue Team, Florida Task Force 2.”
The girl is believed to be the daughter of Graciela Cattarossi, a photographer who lived in Unit 501 of the collapsed portion of the tower. Cattarossi lived there with her daughter Stella and the girl’s grandparents, according to friends.
Everything from continuing the search to the possible demolition of the remaining structure to housing for out-of-town firefighters was being complicated as Hurricane Elsa churned steadily toward South Florida. By late afternoon Friday the storm was about 500 miles east-southeast of the Dominican Republic and expected to gain strength.
Margarita Castro, a member of Miami-Dade’s urban search and rescue team said even though there are contingency plans in place, the rescue effort could come to a halt depending on the storm’s path through the weekend.
“It is very possible that depending on what we end up receiving that all work will stop,” Castro said Friday afternoon.
A decision to move big machinery and some other assets, Castro said, could come as early as Friday, though that wouldn’t stop the search and recovery effort.
“We can’t wait to move everything at the last minute,” she said. “The last asset that will leave this site will be the rescue workers. And the first asset that returns, as soon as it is possible, will be the rescue workers.”
Castro also said even as the storm nears, rain won’t stop the search. But lightning within 2.5 miles of the fallen structure at 8777 Collins Ave., will.
With local hotels booked as the July Fourth weekend approaches, fire-rescue reinforcements from out of town have been hard-pressed to find a place to stay. Royal Caribbean alleviated some of the problem earlier this week by offering hundreds of beds to fire rescue personnel on its Explorer of the Seas cruise ship at PortMiami.
“First responders starting arriving there yesterday,” said port director Juan Kuryla, who said there is space for up to 600 people.
But the offer of bedding was tenuous Friday as Elsa neared. Kuryla said the ship may have to leave Miami if the storm becomes a more serious threat.
The search was bolstered this week with the arrival of five federal urban search and rescue teams from Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The teams could offer relief if Florida team members need a break or during the arrival of a storm.
As the search and rescue mission continues, engineers and others are combing through building plans, surveillance video, photos and other documents that will help them piece together the probable cause of the partial collapse.
The latest clue surfaced in the form of a vague reference in a recent report about the building’s concrete.
Concrete testing at the Champlain Towers South condo last year “yielded some curious results,” engineering firm Morabito Consultants wrote in an October 2020 report obtained by the Miami Herald. But the report was silent on exactly what was unusual or alarming about it, an omission that surprised multiple experts who spoke with the Herald.
While the report describes some testing and repair efforts that were underway — such as the removal of damaged concrete from a pool equipment room and some “exploratory demolition” in five locations — it did not provide details on what was “curious” about the concrete testing.
The horrific collapse occurred just as the building was beginning its 40-year certification process, a comprehensive review that can require expensive repairs, which are billed to unit owners based on the square footage of their homes.
On Thursday, local leaders called for earlier inspections of older high-rise building.
Surfside has requested that all owners of structures more than 30 years old and over three stories high begin assessing their buildings for recertification — a change from what has until now been a 40-year recertification deadline.
The town called it an “acceleration” of the program.
Also Friday morning, the Champlain Towers Condo Association agreed to hand over financial decision-making to a court-appointed receiver. Attorney Michael Goldberg can now grant up to $10,000 of insurance money for condo owners who need help finding new homes in the aftermath of the collapse. Families will also be allowed up to $2,000 to pay for funeral expenses.
So far, insurance companies for Champlain Towers have already agreed to pay out $3 million, lawyers said during a Friday court hearing. The building had insurance policies for at least $48 million. The condo board is under intense legal and public scrutiny for the handling of repairs prior to the collapse.
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(Miami Herald staff writers Sarah Blaskey, Ben Conarck, Joey Flechas, Luis Joel Mendez Gonzalez, Alex Harris, Aaron Leibowitz, Michelle Marchante, Bianca Padró Ocasio, David Ovalle, Allie Pitchon, Marie-Rose Sheinerman and Colleen Wright contributed to this report.)
