Two children among those found in Surfside condo rubble as death toll rises to 18
Two young sisters, 10-year-old Lucia and 4-year-old Emma Guara, were among the latest victims identified by Miami-Dade police after being found in the rubble of Champlain Towers South on Wednesday evening. They are so far the youngest victims identified since the building partially collapsed suddenly a week ago.
Their mother, Anaely Rodriguez, was also among the 18 dead found so far.
Search and rescue teams had pulled the body of her husband, Marcus Guara, on Saturday and identified him on Monday, police said. The family of four lived together on the eighth floor.
Six bodies in total had been pulled from the rubble on Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, as rescue teams worked through the seventh day of scouring the site for survivors.
Levine Cava said at the evening press briefing in Surfside that the death toll has risen to 18 people, though only 12 families have been notified of their loved one’s death and publicly identified. Levine Cava said 139 people who lived or worked in the portion of the tower that collapsed have been accounted for, but another 145 are still reported missing.
“The loss of our children is too great to bear,” said Levine Cava, holding back tears. “Our community, our nation and the world, we are all mourning with these families.”
Also during the late briefing, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced that they will request a full technical investigation into the collapse. The investigation, they said, will be a fact-finding — not a fault-finding — inquiry and will likely take years to complete.
Teams have been working through the rubble at a faster pace after engineers and first responders built a ramp overnight Tuesday to bring cranes, backhoes and other heavy equipment closer to the sunken pool deck, which experts and survivors have said collapsed first, potentially triggering the disaster.
After 2 a.m. Wednesday, multiple police officers and rescue personnel said there were new concerns about the stability of the remaining portion of Champlain Towers South. That led to clearing people from the area around the rescue operation, but it wasn’t clear the extent of the disruption or changes to the operation. Cranes used to move debris were still as 3 a.m. approached.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky emphasized that the priority is still search and rescue, and noted that conditions on the pile are becoming more dangerous as debris moves and shifts or falls from the portion of the tower that remains standing. Though heavy equipment is allowing workers to move larger and heavier pieces of debris, Cominsky said some large concrete slabs are not holding together.
“They’re crumbling as we try to move them,” he said.
On the ground, the grueling work of searching for the missing takes its toll on the firefighters scouring debris for any sign of life.
The ruins are peppered with reminders of the ordinary lives that occupied the 55 units that crumbled in seconds at about 1:20 a.m. on June 24 — toys, wallets, photographs. But first responders have yet to find survivors to connect with those items, a disappointment that weighs heavy with each passing hour, said Margarita Castro, a member of the search-and-rescue team and a Miami-Dade firefighter for 17 years.
“We talk to each other. Sometimes all you can do is find a small, quiet corner and just cry for a little while, and let some of that out let some of that pressure that you’ve got building up. Release some of that pressure,” Castro said. “We each have our moments of strength. We each have our moments of weakness.”
Help for hearts, minds
While rescue teams burn through gloves, boots and other gear in the ongoing search for survivors, mental health counselors are helping families cope with the anguish and despair of the tragedy.
Charles Cyrille, deputy incident commander for Miami-Dade, said the “all hands on deck” response includes 26 organizations that are present at the family assistance center providing grief counseling, and help with housing and other needs.
Levine Cava pledged that officials would also get to the bottom of what caused the collapse, saying that she has spoken with Miami-Dade’s state attorney about asking a grand jury to investigate the catastrophe.
“As we continue our search and rescue efforts 24/7 without stop,” she said, “we’re also taking immediate action to provide answers and accountability.” Miami-Dade has launched a mass inspection of buildings that are 40 years or older and taller than five stories.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, speaking in Surfside earlier on Wednesday, said the state is committing more resources to helping families cope with the tragedy in the long term. And he vowed that the search and rescue would continue until every person is accounted for.
“Rest assured,” he said, “that those folks are going to be working on that pile, and it’s not going to stop, and they’re going to get answers one way or another.”
Victims identified
One family confirmed Wednesday that the 12th person found dead at the site was Hilda Noriega, 92, the mother of North Bay Village Police Chief Carlos Noriega and a resident of Champlain Towers South unit 602. Hilda Noriega had lived at the condominium for more than 20 years and had recently listed her unit for sale, planning to move in with family.
“The Noriegas have lost the ‘heart and soul’ and ‘matriarch’ of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for,” said the family’s statement posted to the North Bay Village Twitter account.
Officials have not identified the two additional bodies recovered from the site because they are notifying family members first. A long line of Miami-Dade County police cars and medical examiner vans are at the site on Collins Avenue.
Reminders are everywhere of the gaping void that the catastrophe has left in so many lives.
Just before 8 a.m., one man approached a makeshift memorial affixed to a chain-link fence one block from the site and in the shadow of the Champlain Towers. He placed white roses near a baby doll and a toy Nerf gun — mementos arranged along with photographs of the missing and an array of carnations. The makeshift shrine is waterlogged after days and nights of persistent rain.
As he crouched down, alone on the sidewalk, his face cracked as he lifted his shirt over his face.
“It’s just so sad,” he said quietly, as he walked away.
On the side of the rubble that faces the beach, Shan and David Luvista from Orange County, California, walked along the shore in the rain from their vacation condo to see for themselves what was left of Champlain Towers South condo.
“We live in earthquake country,” David Luvista, 62, said. “This resonates.”
Authorities placed plastic Jersey barriers along the beach to prevent people from walking up directly to the property. The bottom of the barriers are lined with flowers, candles and stuffed animals.
You can still see rescue workers on top of the pile and hear the heavy machinery and mechanical tractor treads going over the debris though.
Even from the beach, the sounds and sight of the wreckage are chilling.
“We had to pay our respects,” Shan Luvista, 61, said.
The families
As teams continue the painstaking search and rescue — and families and friends of the missing await information about the fate of their loved ones — President Joe Biden said he will visit Surfside on Thursday.
During a vaccination event in Phoenix on Wednesday, first lady Jill Biden held a moment of silence and asked attendees to say a prayer for the families affected by the tragedy.
“The president and I are grieving alongside the community of Surfside, and our hearts are broken for the families,” she said.
Rescue teams have contended with nearly a week of rain, heat, fires deep inside the rubble and the instability of the pile itself. Falling and shifting debris pose deadly risks for rescue workers, and those conditions can slow the search.
Teams have removed three million pounds of concrete from the site, Miami-Dade’s fire chief said Tuesday night.
The commander of the Israeli National Rescue Unit told CNN early Wednesday that rescue teams discovered new tunnels in the rubble Tuesday night, leading them to find more bodies.
Helping rescue teams search for survivors are at least two small unmanned devices sent from a Massachusetts-based company over the weekend to the Surfside collapse scene. They are equipped with thermal sensors and 360-degree-view cameras that can help teams search for people and that have previously helped rescuers in similar situations, including the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11.
Preparing for potential tropical weather
Four weeks into hurricane season, emergency officials said they must be prepared for potential storms anywhere in the state.
With every Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force currently deployed to Surfside, officials said they have requested reinforcements in Surfside in case crews are needed to respond to a storm elsewhere in Florida.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said he and Cominsky made the decision together to request additional resources from the federal government.
Cominksy said officials had already requested to have three federal teams on standby in case they’re needed. One will now be deployed to Surfside, he added.
“Due to the recent five-day forecast with two storms, we decided that it would be best to go ahead and activate them,” he said.
Guthrie said on Wednesday that state emergency officials are working with the state’s chief meteorologist and the National Hurricane Center to track storms.
“The state emergency response team is extremely experienced in managing multiple disasters at one time,” he said.
NIST announces federal fact-finding inquiry
It could be years until the true causes of the collapse are publicly known.
Judith Mitrani-Reiser, associate chief of the materials and structural systems division at NIST, said Wednesday the agency made the determination to open an inquiry based on information collected on site in Surfside. At least six NIST scientists arrived at the collapse site by Sunday evening.
“We are going in with an open mind,” Mitrani-Reiser said. “In any building collapse, we will be interested in samples and local soil conditions.”
NIST director Dr. James Olthoff said the agency has designated a national construction team to investigate the collapse.
NIST investigations into structural failures are rare. Since the agency was given authority to investigate building collapses after 9/11, NIST has undertaken four investigations, including the World Trade Center collapse, the 2003 Rhode Island nightclub fire, the 2011 Joplin tornado and an ongoing inquiry into Hurricane Maria. Surfside will be the agency’s fifth investigation.
Structural problems
While rescue teams continue their work, engineers and others have started what is expected to be a lengthy investigation. They are also working to inspect the condition of buildings adjacent to Champlain Towers South and ensure their structural integrity.
Allyn Kilsheimer, founder and chief executive of KCE Structural Engineers based in Washington, D.C., has consulted on major disasters like the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the Florida International University bridge collapse. He said the firm would perform an “in-depth evaluation” of the cause of the collapse.
Potential clues have begun to emerge about what caused the building at 8777 Collins Ave. to fail.
An engineer’s 2018 report flagged “major structural damage” in the pool deck, entrance ramp and garage areas below the Champlain Towers South, yet the chief building official for the town of Surfside told residents the condo building was “in very good shape,” according to minutes from a November 2018 board meeting obtained by the Miami Herald.
Ross Prieto, the chief building official who left the post in Surfside last year, announced Tuesday that he has taken a leave of absence as Doral’s temporary building official.
And an email posted on the town’s website showed that condo board member Mara 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.
Based on public records, video footage of the building’s collapse and other images of the property, several engineering experts told the Herald that they suspect the pool deck and parking garage area caved in first, which then caused the middle and oceanfront sections of the tower to crumble under their own weight.
Meanwhile, a fourth lawsuit was filed on Wednesday by the relatives of a missing father, Harold Rosenberg, against the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association, Morabito Consultants and SD Architect. They are asking for authorities to allow the families to fly a drone over the rubble so they can get visuals of the search and rescue efforts.
“The families don’t know what they’re documenting, and we don’t know what they’re documenting,” said attorney Robert Mongeluzzi.
Changes to building inspections
While the answers to the Champlain Towers South partial collapse won’t be known until a forensic investigation is complete, structural engineers and architects said there are a number of sophisticated sensing techniques and tests — sonar, radar, hand-held X-rays, salinity tests and magnetic imaging — that can help engineers detect problems early by assessing conditions inside a concrete beam or beneath the foundation.
Neither Miami-Dade County nor the state of Florida requires inspectors to use any of those techniques or tests.
Joel Figueroa-Vallines at SEP Engineers, an Orlando-based forensic structural engineer, said he hoped an evaluation of Florida’s dated building inspection laws would lead to more thorough examinations statewide.
“To do a complete evaluation on a structure you need to include the foundation,’’ Figueroa-Vallines said. “The building could be designed perfectly and if the foundation fails, the building is still coming down.”
Miami Herald staff writers Samantha J. Gross, Mary Ellen Klas, Aaron Leibowitz, Charles Rabin, Martin Vassolo and McClatchy DC Correspondent Francesca Chambers contributed to this report
This story was originally published June 30, 2021 at 7:58 AM.
