Condo collapse live updates: All Surfside victims who have been recovered, identified
UPDATE 6/29/2021: Click here for new updates on the Surfside building collapse.
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Rescue crews continue to search through the rubble for survivors after a 12-store oceanfront condo tower partially collapsed in Surfside, just north of Miami Beach. The portion of Champlain Towers South that crumbled faces the ocean.
People who have loved ones at the condo, unaccounted for or safe, should call 305-614-1819 to notify officials. Anyone who lives at the Champlain Towers and is safe is asked to complete a Wellness Check form to help the Miami-Dade County keep track of tenants.
Here’s what we know so far:
Police identify three more victims after the Surfside condo collapse. Death toll hits 11
10 p.m.: Miami-Dade police on Monday night released the identities of three more people pulled from the rubble of the Surfside building collapse.
The death toll is now at 11; all of the victims have been identified. The search continued Monday — with officials saying that there were 150 unaccounted for and 136 people accounted for after the Champlain Towers South came down early Thursday morning.
The victims named Monday are: Marcus Joseph Guara, 52, who was recovered Saturday; Frank Kleiman, 55, who was recovered Monday and Michael Altman, 50, who was recovered Monday.
Venezuelan couple gave a lasting gift to the Jewish community before they died in collapse
9:10 p.m.: Christina Beatriz Elvira and Leon Oliwkowicz were among the 10 victims whose bodies have been identified after the Surfside condominium building collapse on Thursday.
Oliwkowicz, whose remains were recovered on Saturday, was 80, and Elvira, whose body was recovered on Sunday, was 74, according to Miami-Dade police. The couple lived in apartment 704 of Champlain Towers South, according to Miami-Dade property records.
They are survived by four children and 11 grandchildren.
Who are the people sifting through the rubble at the Surfside building collapse?
8:45 p.m.: The disaster in Surfside has drawn emergency crews from across Florida. The number of people on the ground is equal to what was deployed in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane that devastated the Panhandle in 2018, officials said.
“What is different is that I can’t recall any time that we’ve deployed all eight teams in the history of Florida for one single catastrophic collapse,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told the Miami Herald in a phone interview Monday afternoon. The division is tasked with the state’s response to disasters like hurricanes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Guthrie is referring to Florida’s eight Urban Search and Rescue task force teams, about 370 people, who are assisting in the search and rescue efforts in Surfside. They’re trained to work together and are specialized in a variety of disaster responses, including underwater rescues, trench rescues and rescues from structural collapses.
Surfside residents can use Miami Beach pools and tennis courts
8:20 p.m.: Surfside residents can use Miami Beach’s pools and tennis courts for the next 60 days.
“We’ve received a number of inquiries from Surfside families who have been unable to access their community’s tennis center and community pool along Collins Avenue due to the ongoing emergency response,” Miami Beach City Manager Alina T. Hudak said in a news release. “This small gesture will certainly be appreciated by families with young children over the summer months.”
Beginning Tuesday, Surfside residents will pay Miami Beach resident prices to use the city’s two public tennis centers and three community swimming pools.
The facilities are: Miami Beach Tennis Center, 501 72 St., 305-604-4080; Flamingo Park Tennis Center, 1200 Meridian Ave. , 305-673-7761; Normandy Isle Park & Pool, 7030 Trouville Esplanade, 305-993-2021; Flamingo Park & Pool, 12th St. and Michigan Avenue, 305-673-7750 or Scott Rakow Youth Center, 2700 Sheridan Ave., 305-673-7767.
Death toll rises to 11 in Champlain condo collapse search
7:30 p.m.: The fifth day of an unprecedented international rescue effort brought only grim news: two more bodies were pulled from the twisted metal-and-concrete ruins of Champlain Towers South, raising the death toll on Monday to 11 and dimming prospects of finding survivors.
The announcement Monday night of the latest body to be discovered means that 150 people remain unaccounted for in what could become one of the nation’s deadliest mass-casualty events.
“Our teams have made significant progress on the site,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Cava Levine said at an evening press conference. “These numbers are very fluid and they will change.”
Flowers, candles, messages left at pop-up Surfside memorials
7 p.m.: The outpouring of grief for the victims and missing in the Surfside condominium collapse is physical, tucked into chain-link fences, scribbled on scraps of paper and heaped onto tables.
As the fifth day of searching for survivors continues, small clusters of people have begun to gather quietly around the chain-link fences blocking off the public from getting too close to the site of the disaster.
These have become impromptu memorials — gathering spots for neighbors and people whose loved ones are among the missing. They hang photos, leave flowers, whisper greetings to neighbors and strangers alike. Some kneel to light candles or pray. It is an almost serene moment of unity during a tragedy that will undoubtedly affect the small Surfside community for years to come.
The Miami Marlins, Miami Marlins Foundation launch Surfside fund
6:40 p.m.: The Miami Marlins, along with the Miami Marlins Foundation, created the Marlins Surfside Relief Fund, the team announced Monday. It is one of several organizations collecting funds to benefit Champlain Towers South victims.
Marlins Principal Owner and Chairman Bruce Sherman made the first donation — $50,000. His donation was matched by Anthony Hsieh, founder and CEO of Marlins naming-rights partner loanDepot, Inc.
The Marlins organization and Marlins ownership group will make an additional $25,000 contribution to the fund. loanDepot will also $25,000 donation, and will match the next $50,000 contribution.
To donate, visit Marlins Surfside Relief Fund at Marlins.com/Surfside.
How has the Surfside collapse impacted the business community?
6 p.m.: The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity has launched a survey to get a better handle on how the condo collapse has affected local businesses.
The Business Damage Assessment Survey is a way for the state to “ensure proper resources are available for response and recovery for the Surfside community.”
The survey, managed by DEO, will compile the results and pass them along to various state and local agencies in order for them to get some financial relief.
The survey can be taken at FloridaDisaster.biz/BusinessDamageAssessments by selecting the “Surfside Condo Collapse”.
-Carli Teproff
Two days before condo collapse, a pool contractor photographed this damage in garage
4:50p.m.: There was nothing unusual about the lobby and pool area at Champlain Towers South Condo, which looked clean and well maintained to a commercial pool contractor who visited the building last Tuesday, just 36 hours before half of the building unexpectedly collapsed. Then, he saw the basement-level garage.
“There was standing water all over the parking garage,” the contractor, who asked not to be named, told the Miami Herald. He noted cracking concrete and severely corroded rebar under the pool.
He also took photos, which he shared with the Herald.
Biden supports investigation into Surfside building collapse
4 p.m.: President Joe Biden supports an investigation into the collapse of a condo building in Surfside to prevent similar disasters from happening again, the White House said Monday.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration wants to “play any constructive role we can play with federal resources in getting to the bottom of it and preventing it from happening in the future.”
Ten people have been found dead in the rubble of the residential condominium building that collapsed five days ago, and 151 remain unaccounted for.
A dog from Mexico is part of the search team at the Surfside collapse site
2:45 p.m.: The search-and-rescue effort at the Champlain Towers South building collapse site in Surfside includes an international nonprofit group of volunteers trained in Israel called Cadena.
Cadena has responded to more than 1,000 natural disasters and humanitarian crises in 26 countries since its founding in 2005, said Erika Glanz, director of its international emergencies division.
And, even though Glanz is used to coordinating the types of rescue teams like the one working in Surfside, this mission has an even greater sense of urgency for her.
Why are crews tunneling under the rubble?
1:30 p.m.: Rescue crews have dug a large trench through the rubble of the collapsed Surfside condo tower as they continue to search for possible survivors.
Crews used heavy equipment to dig the trench, which is described to be 125 feet long, 20 feet wide and 40 feet deep. It was created for two purposes:
One of the reasons is to let rescuers search for survivors in other parts of the pile with their dogs, cameras, sonar and infrared technology. It was also part of an effort to combat a “deep” fire that Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava described over the weekend as “hampering” search efforts.
Another victim identified, death toll hits 10
11:58 a.m.: Another body was discovered in the rubble of the Champlain Towers condo building collapse, bringing the official death toll to 10.
That leaves 151 souls still unaccounted for on Day Five of the massive search-and-rescue effort that has drawn international help and speculation as to what caused the sudden collapse of an occupied 12-story condominium in the dead of night.
“The search and rescue operation continues,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava said Monday at the command center. “Right now the top concern is search and rescue and find.”
On Sunday, families got their first look at the rescue effort in person. They shouted the names of their loved ones, their desperate cries momentarily breaking the solemn silence of the search.
Officials did not yet identify the latest person recovered because they are still in the process of reaching out to the next of kin.
Traffic closures, detours near the Surfside building collapse have changed
9:35 a.m: As rescue efforts at the collapsed Champlain Towers South continue, options for getting around Surfside and the northernmost part of Miami Beach have shrunk, whether you walk, bike or drive.
Over the weekend, hotel guests had trouble getting taxis or Ubers. Drivers trying to get north or south or to the command center area around 85th Street and Collins Avenue found traffic clenched like a fighter’s fist.
Click here for a list of closures of detours.
Anguished families visit Surfside condo ruins to pray and mourn the lost
7:55 a.m..: After days of pleading, families on Sunday were allowed to visit the ruins of the Champlain Tower South condo to grieve and pray for loved ones lost somewhere under tons of concrete and steel.
The visits were raw moments of catharsis kept private, away from the crush of media that has descended on the small beach town of Surfside. In the early afternoon, many families boarded Miami-Dade County buses for the six-block trip from the Grand Beach Hotel to the site a search-and-rescue site now crawling with heavy equipment and dozens of workers.
Many wept, wearing t-shirts adorned with photos of their missing loved ones. Victims advocates helped shield families’ faces with clipboards and umbrellas as they boarded. When they arrive at the site, several people yelled out names at the mountain of debris in hopes someone might hear, according to an official who accompanied the families.
Surfside official sent disturbing report told board condo was ‘in good shape’
6:35 a.m.: A month after an engineer’s report flagged “major structural damage” at Champlain Towers South, the chief building official for the town of Surfside told residents the condominium was “in very good shape,” according to minutes from a November 2018 board meeting obtained by the Miami Herald.
Ross Prieto, who left the post last year, had reviewed the engineer’s report, the minutes say. Records show condo board member Mara Chouela forwarded a copy to him two days earlier.
An email posted on the town’s website shows that Chouela sent Prieto two reports: the “structural field survey report” by engineer Frank Morabito of Morabito Consultants detailing the building’s structural deficiencies, and a mechanical and electrical engineering report by Thomas E. Henz. P.E. And it was Chouela who introduced Prieto at the meeting with five of the seven board members, along with property manager Alexandria Santamaria, condo board lawyer Marilyn Perez and interested residents who had gathered in the building’s recreation room.
But over the weekend, Prieto told the Miami Herald he didn’t remember getting the report.
He said he didn’t recall the email from Chouela, who had also shared cost estimates for the repair work. Prieto said he wasn’t aware that the town had received the report, which detailed “abundant cracking” in concrete columns, beams and walls.
Here’s why the search and rescue mission is complex
6:35 a.m.: The tragic collapse of Champlain Towers South condominium presents Miami-Dade Fire Rescue with a difficult search-and-rescue mission.
“This is the most complex situation we’ve ever encountered,” MDFR Assistant Fire Chief Ray Jadallah told family, friends and loved ones of victims in an update posted by Instagram user abigailpereiraok.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has an international accreditation that few departments have. Their rescue workers get sent to disasters all over the world. But the department now faces a complex set of issues, including a “deep” fire.
Key facts
6:35 a.m.: Here’s what you need to know Monday morning:
▪ The death toll is at nine. The number of missing is 152. The Surfside building collapsed at 1:23 a.m. Thursday. The tower fell while residents slept. The side of the building that collapsed faces the beach.
▪ Evacuations are optional, not mandatory, at the collapsed condo’s sister building, Champlain Towers North Condo, about a block away. Residents who want to relocate can use FEMA funds.
▪ It will likely be months or even years before engineers and other experts know exactly why a part of the Champlain Towers South came crashing down.
This story was originally published June 28, 2021 at 6:50 AM with the headline "Condo collapse live updates: All Surfside victims who have been recovered, identified."
