Rescue work in Surfside, Florida
Image: AFP
The miracle did not materialize: two weeks after the partial collapse of a residential building in Florida, the authorities assume that they cannot find any survivors. The bodies of 86 people are still believed to be under the rubble.
Rand two weeks after the partial collapse of a high-rise apartment building in Florida, rescue workers stop looking for survivors. For search and rescue operations, all available options have been exhausted, said the Miami Dade district administration chief Daniella Levine Cava on Wednesday. Therefore, the “extremely difficult decision” had been made that the helpers would concentrate on recovering the corpses from midnight onwards.
Eight more bodies had been found in the past few hours, it said. This brings the official death toll to 54. 86 people are still suspected of being under the rubble of the building in the nearby Miami city of Surfside.
Years ago reports of “major structural damage”
At the weekend, the remains of the partially collapsed residential high-rise were blown up in a controlled manner. Due to the tropical storm “Elsa”, which had meanwhile been upgraded to a hurricane, the remains of the building were also threatened with collapse.
The twelve-story residential building Champlain Towers South had partially collapsed on the night of June 24th. The exact cause of the accident is still unknown. In 2018, however, an appraisal had already found “major structural damage” to the building, which was completed in 1981.
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