Miami Beach Building Collapse 'Many Fear Dead'

 

A wing of a 12-story beachfront condominium building collapsed with a roar in a city outside Miami early Thursday, killing at least one person and trapping residents in rubble and twisted metal. Rescuers pulled dozens of survivors from the tower during the morning and continued to look for more.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett warned that the death toll was likely to rise, saying the building manager informed him the tower was quite full at the time of the collapse round 1:30 a.m., but the actual number of people present was unclear.

“The building is actually pancaked,” Burkett said. “That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we desired to be in discovering people alive.”

Hours after the collapse, searchers had been making an attempt to reach a trapped baby whose dad and mom were believed to be dead. In another case, rescuers saved a mom and child, but the woman’s leg had to be amputated to get rid of her from the rubble, Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, informed the Miami Herald.

Authorities did not say what may have prompted the collapse. On video footage captured from nearby, the center of the building seemed to fall first, with a section nearest the ocean teetering and coming down seconds later as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighborhood.

Work was being carried out on the building’s roof, but Burkett stated he did not see how that could have been the cause.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava stated she got a call from President Joe Biden, who supplied federal aid. Hotels opened to some of the displaced residents, she said, and deliveries of food, medicine and extra were being hastily arranged. Rescue officials tried to determine how many people would possibly be missing and requested residents to check in with them.

About half of the building’s roughly a hundred thirty units were affected, the mayor informed a news conference. Rescuers pulled at least 35 people from the wreckage by mid-morning, and heavy gear was being brought in to assist stabilize the structure to give them more access, Raide Jadallah of Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said.

Fifty-one people who were thought to be in the building at the time of the collapse were unaccounted for by mid-morning — but there was a possibility that some weren’t at home, stated Sally Heyman, of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners.

The tower has a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, and whilst the building keeps a log of guests, it does not keep track of when owners are in residence, Burkett said.

Earlier, Burkett stated two people were brought to the hospital, one of whom died. He added that 15 families walked out of the building on their own.

Gov. Ron DeSantis stated officials were “bracing for some terrible news just given the destruction that we’re seeing.”