Rescuers early yesterday were given the all-clear to resume work looking for victims at a collapsed South Florida condominium after demolition crews set off a string of explosives that brought down the building’s remains in a plume of dust.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said that the demolition went “exactly as planned” at about 10:30pm on Sunday.
Crews immediately began clearing some of the new debris so rescuers could start making their way into parts of the underground garage that is of particular interest. Once there, they were hoping to get a clearer picture of voids that might exist in the rubble and could possibly harbor the 121 people believed to be trapped under the fallen wing of Champlain Towers South in Surfside that collapsed on June 24.
Photo: EPA-EFE
No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the collapse. Miami-Dade Police on Sunday identified David Epstein, 58, as one of the 24 people known to have perished in the fallen tower. His remains were recovered on Friday last week.
Shortly after the demolition, cranes were again in motion at the site, suggesting that crews were back in place in the early hours of yesterday morning to sift through the rubble from above and below.
Rescuers were hoping the demolition would give them access for the first time to parts of the garage area.
Once a new pathway into the initial rubble is secure, “we will go back to the debris pile, and we’ll begin our search-and-rescue efforts,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Albert Cominsky said at a news conference several hours before the remaining wing of the residential building came down.
During the demolition, a loud rat-at-tat of explosions echoed from the structure. Then the building began to fall, one floor after another, cascading into an explosion of dust. Plumes billowed into the air, as crowds watched the scene from afar.
“It was picture perfect. Exactly what we were told would happen,” Levine Cava said in an interview shortly after the demolition.
Levine Cava expressed relief that the search for victims could continue, after being suspended on Saturday so that workers could begin rigging the damaged, but still-upright portion of the partly-collapsed tower with explosives — a precarious operation that could have caused the structure to fail.
“I feel relief because this building was unstable. The building was hampering our search efforts,” Levine Cava said.
Approaching Tropical Storm Elsa added urgency to the demolition plans, with forecasts suggesting there could be strong winds in the area by yesterday.
The latest forecasts have moved the storm westward, mostly sparing south Florida, but National Hurricane Center meteorologist Robert Molleda said the area could still feel effects.
“We’re expecting primarily tropical storm force gusts,” Molleda said, referring to gusts above 64kph.
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