Death toll from Surfside condo collapse climbs to 22 as order is signed to demolish standing tower

As the official death toll from the partial collapse of the condominium in Surfside grew to 22 on Friday evening, an order was signed to demolish the still-standing portion of Champlain Towers South.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that she signed an emergency order for the demolition of the remaining portion of the tower that is still standing.

She said the decision was not made lightly and she understands that the demolition may be difficult for people who made it out of the tower safely and whose belongings were left behind.

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She said tearing down the building is critical to ensure safety.

The order came at the end of another day without a rescue, as the body of a Miami firefighter’s 7-year-old daughter as well as two other people were recovered from the debris, increasing the official death toll to 22 victims of the disaster as of early Friday evening.

But despite the latest tragic development Friday — and concerns about Hurricane Elsa now swirling in the Atlantic — authorities cited some good news: The list of people counted as safe increased to 188, which is 49 more than the most recent tally.

Levine Cava said detectives were able to account for many more residents after days of tracking down leads of people reported as missing since the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South. Still, there are now 126 people unaccounted for.

The ill-fated tower’s association of owners knew their tower was in need to repairs and quickly, but the town of Surfside was not quick to respond, according to a Miami Herald report published Friday evening.

In May, the condo association submitted plans asking for approval of a temporary parking plan in order to move forward. But their request went unanswered for more than a month. The delay, according to the Miami Herald, prompted the condo building manager, to accuse the town of “holding us up” as the association sought to accelerate the tower’s overhaul, which included repairs to a concrete slab under the pool deck and planters that experts are now pointing to as an initial point of failure that preceded the building collapse.

A month after the requests roughly half of the tower collapsed. Sifting through 12 stories of rubble has been painstaking.

The death of the first-responder’s child was also “uniquely difficult” for rescuers, who “are paying an enormous human toll each and every day, and I ask that all of you please keep them in your thoughts and prayers,” the mayor said.

A Local 10 News report said the young victim’s father, who has been at the site, placed his jacket over her and put a small American flag on a gurney. The Miami Herald reported the firefighter and his brother, another firefighter, had kept a vigil since the night of the collapse, staying on the site every day until they found the girl Thursday night. The city has not identified the firefighter or the victim.

“We ask that you respect the privacy of the immediate family as well as our Fire Department family while we grieve our loss and support our own,” Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban said in a statement Friday.

Authorities say they are determined to keep searching sections of the disaster site deemed safe — a grueling effort now in its ninth day — while the nation prays and clings to the faint hope that someone will be found alive under the debris. No survivors have been found since the initial hours after the collapse.

“The South Florida search-and-rescue teams have been working tirelessly and relentlessly,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a late-morning media briefing. “It’s obviously physically very taxing. It’s also emotionally draining.”

The governor said the work could be interrupted if the area experiences tropical storm force winds from the season’s first hurricane, which could reach the Miami area by Sunday night.

“We don’t know exactly the track it’s going to take,” DeSantis said, adding he expects some impact for Florida from the storm.

The search teams have been dealing with rainy weather all along, but nothing like a severe system.

“Now another significant obstacle on the horizon,” said Alan Cominsky, chief of Miami-Dade County Fire-Rescue. “We’ll have to see the direction of the storm and how close it gets, and then we’ll have to make the necessary precautions and modifications to our plan.”

State officials paused search-and-rescue efforts for about 15 hours Thursday after structural engineers expressed concerns about the stability of a portion of condo complex that did not collapse when other sections fell early June 24. The problem include widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column.

The work resumed after sections of the debris were labeled into a grid. Rescuers are looking in three of the nine portions of the grid, Cominsky said.

Levine Cava said the remaining portion of the tower would not be demolished until first examining possible impacts to the debris pile and the search operation.

Scott Nacheman, a structures specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said there is not yet a definitive timeline for when the remaining building will be torn down, but a decision could take weeks, at best.

During a visit to the area on Thursday, President Joe Biden stressed the importance of continuing the rescue mission as soon as experts clear the way. And he says it’s critical for investigations to find out why the 40-year-old tower fell, whether adjacent towers are safe, and how to prevent the same kind of collapse from happening elsewhere.

“We’re committed not only to recover but to restore safety across the board,” he said.

In an attempt to avoid a similar tragedy, Surfside is requesting property owners begin assessing their buildings 30 years and older and over three stories tall before the typical 40-year recertification.

Property owners with buildings that fit the description and those with buildings on the east side of Collins Avenue near the ocean should hire a licensed geotechnical engineer to analyze “the foundation and subsurface soils,” said a letter from the Surfside Building Department.

‘Some curious results’

The Miami Herald reported it obtained an October 2020 report by engineering firm Morabito Consultants, which noted how concrete testing at the Champlain Towers South condo last year “yielded some curious results.” But the nine-page document was silent on exactly what was unusual.

Problems at the building were first highlighted in a 2018 inspection by the firm. That review found a “major error” in the design of the building, crumbling concrete columns in the garage area beneath the structure, and predicted that failure to fix the problems in the “near future will cause the extent of the concrete deterioration to expand exponentially.”

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The more recent document outlines 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, according to the Herald.

These and other findings are the focus of multiple civil lawsuits and a criminal grand jury that will decide who to hold accountable, and how to prevent it from happening someplace else.

Morabito’s review highlighted costly repairs and renovations needed for the tower’s 40-year recertification.

Homeowners on April 9 received a letter from the condo association president outlining how damage to the building’s basement garage had “gotten significantly worse” since the 2018 inspection. The letter informed residents about signs of an “accelerating” concrete failure, with total price tag for all work soaring from about $9.1 million in 2018 to $16.2 million this year.

Movement in debris pile

Crews early Thursday spotted several expansions in cracks they had been monitoring. They also observed 6 to 12 inches of movement in a large column hanging from the structure “that could fall and cause damage to support columns” in an underground parking garage, Cominsky said.

Workers also noticed movement in the debris pile and slight movement in some concrete floor slabs “that could cause additional failure of the building,” he said.

Critical points around the site have been monitored with sensors since the rescue operation began, Nacheman said. Heavy equipment in the rubble pile caused vibrations, he said. Rain has also been entering exposed parts of the building, saturating items and adding weight to the floors, according to reports.

Pledges of help

The president on Friday followed through on a promise that the federal government will pay for at least the initial response at Surfside.

“I want to pick up 100% of the cost from the county and the state over the first 30 days,” Biden said Thursday during a meeting at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort. “I think I’m quite sure I can do that.”

The president made it official, authorizing federal funds to pay all costs for “debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance.”

DeSantis on Friday again thanked Biden for the money, which has been cleared of any bureaucratic obstacles.

“That’ll be very helpful, I think, to all levels of government here in Florida so we appreciate that commitment,” the governor said of being unburdened from the expense.

Remembering the victims

Authorities have released the names of 17 victims so far. All but one was found dead at the site.

News of the death of the Miami firefighter’s young daughter was devastating, said the city’s mayor, Francis X. Suarez.

“I’m the father of two children, I have a 7-year-old son, and the thought of losing him in this way is unimaginable,” Suarez said. “This tragedy has haunted so many of us because so many of us know someone who was in the building or affected by this tragedy.”

Added county mayor Levine Cava: “For all of us here, and across the world, we know that this entire process is as if it were our own children, our own parents, our own sisters and brothers, and grandparents. That’s how it is every day here and around the world.”

A major part of that outpouring of support has come from Israel, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

The Israeli Defense Forces sent a team consisting of Home Front Command soldiers to the town to assist with rescue efforts. Hatzalah/Rescuers Without Borders — an Israeli volunteer organization of medics, paramedics and doctors — also sent a delegation to Surfside.

“This has been devastating, tragic and sad, so we’re trying to be some source for hope and comfort for the families,” said Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, consul general of Israel in Miami, who has met with victims’ families.

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