Miami building collapse - updates: Death toll reaches 12 as extra rescue team requested amid tropical forecast

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Rescue teams continue working at the site of the deadly Miami building collapse

The death toll from the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, continues to rise, with 12 confirmed fatalities, and a further 149 people missing.

Authorities in Florida have asked the federal government to send another rescue team to aid its efforts amid reports that tropical storms could hit Miami in the coming days.

Over the weekend, US media reported that a Surfside official assured residents of the now-collapsed condominium that it was “in very good shape”, a month after an engineering report found it had “major structural damage”.

A resident of a sister building told reporters he had “concerns” about a crack that appeared n his block, Champlain Towers East, after Thursday’s tragedy. Residents in the block have been offered to evacuate, although there is no imminent threat.

It comes amid reports that the building’s developers broke rules by adding an additional floor to the 12-storey building, and afterwards ignored warnings of structural damage.

Those with family members who may have been in the building at the time of its collapse are asked to call 305-614-1819. More information here.

• What we know about the victims and 150 missing people
• Tenth victim found in rubble of collapsed Florida condo building

Key Points

• ‘The concrete deterioration is accelerating’: Condo board boss warned of worsening damage just weeks before collapse
• Bidens to tour site of Champlain Towers on Thursday, White House says
• Miami official said building was ‘in good shape’ despite concerns set out in engineering report
• Crack appeared in sister condo building from ‘concussion’ of collapsed tower
• What we know about the victims and 150 missing people

[30 June 2021 07:50 · Rory Sullivan]

Good morning, and welcome back to The Independent’s live updates on the collapsed Miami condo.

[30 June 2021 07:50 · Rory Sullivan]

Additional rescue team requested as storms forecast

The federal government will send an extra rescue team to the collapsed condo in Surfside, after authorities in Florida requested additional help as they brace themselves for the possible arrival of severe weather.

Kevin Guthrie, of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said the move would move would allow staff to be rotated.

Speaking on Tuesday night, he said: “There are two areas of (possible storm) development out in the Atlantic, heading to the Caribbean. We have eight urban rescue teams in Florida.

“We have all the resources we need but we’re going to bring in another team. We want to rotate those out so we can get more resources out.”

His comment comes as the National Hurricane Center warned that two storm systems in the Atlantic could become tropical systems.

There are 900 people working on the search and rescue efforts in Surfside, according to Charles Cyrille of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency.

[30 June 2021 08:15 · Rory Sullivan]

Survivor speaks of lucky escape

Erick De Moura, 40, wanted to go home last Wednesday evening to his apartment in Champlain Towers South after watching football with his girlfriend Fernanda Figueiredo and some friends.

She convinced him to spend the night at hers, a decision that saved his life.

“That night was unusual,” Mr De Moura told the Washington Post. “I was going to leave Fernanda’s house to go home and take a shower and die.”

“There’s definitely a lot of pain at this moment,” Mr De Moura told CNN’s New Day. “I’m very grateful to be alive, but very sad for the tragedy of everybody.”

Nathan Place reports:

[30 June 2021 08:34 · Rory Sullivan]

Rescue efforts enter their seventh day

Almost exactly a week ago, the 12-storey Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida, caved in.

Efforts to locate and rescue survivors have now entered their seventh day, but no one has been found alive under the rubble so far.

The messaging from leading officials has veered from optimism and hope to realism.

Miami-Dade County mayor Daniella Levine Cava said on Monday that the relatives of the missing “coping with the news that they might not have loved ones come out alive and still hoping that they will.”

“Their loved ones may come out as body parts,” she added.

[30 June 2021 08:53 · Rory Sullivan]

All eight Florida Urban Search and Rescue teams deployed

For the first time in Florida’s history, all eight of its Urban Search and Rescue teams have been deployed simultaneously in a non-hurricane response.

They are working at the collapsed condo along with other responders, which include teams from Mexico and Israel.

[30 June 2021 09:13 · Rory Sullivan]

Condo collapse is ‘third largest’ building failure in US history, Florida official says

The collapse of the Champlain Towers South building last week is the “third largest building failure in the history of the United States”, Florida’s chief financial officer has said.

“This is the third largest building failure in the history of the United States – only third to Oklahoma and New York City – so we are doing everything that we can,” Jimmy Patronis said.

His comments were in reference to the bombing of a building in Oklahoma City in 1995 and the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001.

He added that as many men and women were working on the on-acre Surfside site as “in the entirety of Hurricane Michael, which is a Cat 5 storm across 12 counties”.

Twelve people have been confirmed dead and 149 others remain missing.

[30 June 2021 09:40 · Rory Sullivan]

Survivor, 88, was carried to safety by neighbours

Esther Gorfinkel, a resident of the now-collapsed condo, was carried to safety by her neighbours.

The 88-year-old survivor told CNN that she was helped out of the building after she made her way down to the garage.

“They push me out and we got into water,” she said. “And then they push me, push me and push me. There was a lot of debris and we saw a hole that you can see outside. They push me. They pick me up. I saw the sky. I knew I will be safe.”

[30 June 2021 10:25 · Rory Sullivan]

Tropical forecast could impede rescue operation

The National Hurrican Center is currently monitoring two weather fronts in the Atlantic which have a “low to moderate chance for tropical cyclone formation”.

If this occurs and either makes landfall with Florida, it will have an impact on the ongoing rescue operations in Miami.

[30 June 2021 11:30 · Rory Sullivan]

‘Miracles are still possible’, says local Rabbi

A Rabbi in Miami has said that “miracles are still possible”, expressing his hope that survivors could yet be found under the rubble of the collapsed Florida condominium complex.

Sholom Lipskar, the founder of The Shul of Bal Harbour, a synagogue near the building, said on Tuesday: “There’s no rationality nor level of human intellect that can in any way encompass the enormity of what has happened here in Surfside, but this community believes that miracles are still possible. God has not changed.”

The Jewish community in Surfside has donated food and water to search and rescue workers at the Champlain Towers South site.

[30 June 2021 12:07 · Rory Sullivan]

Seismic experts reject theory linking condo collapse with US Navy test

Seismic experts have rejected a theory that a US Navy shock test precipitated the collapse of the Surfside condo last Thursday.

On 18 June, the force set off 40,000 lbs of explosives 100 miles off Florida’s coast to test the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford.

The coastline later recorded a 3.9 magnitude earthquake.

Paul Earle, a Colorado-based seismologist with the US Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Centre (NEIC), dismissed the link between the two events.

He told the Miami Herald: “Given the size of the explosion, the distance from the building, and the time between the explosion and the collapse, we do not see any reasonable mechanism for the Navy explosion on June 18 to have triggered the collapse of the Miami Beach-area condo on June 24.”

Namita Singh has more details: