Death toll rises to 24; timetable moved up to demolish remaining portion of Surfside tower
With a tropical storm headed toward South Florida, the upright portion of the doomed Champlain Towers South building will be demolished within days to allow rescue crews to eventually resume searching the site safely, officials said.
The decision meant that by Saturday evening, rescue teams halted their efforts to find survivors and bodies, as scientists investigating the collapse scrambled to take last-minute 3D measurements of the standing structure, and demolition crews drilled holes into the concrete columns in the first and second floors.
The hope: that crews can detonate explosives placed in those holes by Monday morning — just ahead of powerful winds delivered by Tropical Storm Elsa.
“We will begin search and rescue on any sections that are safe to access as soon as we are cleared,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during a Saturday evening press briefing.
The frantic work added another level of drama to the unprecedented search-and-rescue effort more than a week after the Champlain Towers South building collapsed in the middle of the night, killing at least 24 people and leaving over 120 still missing.
Since the June 24 collapse, rescue crews from across the nation and world have been struggling to find survivors and bodies in the concrete and metal remains of the 12-story building. Saturday evening, authorities released the names of two more victims: Graciela Cattarossi, 48, and Gonzalo Torre, 81. Both were recovered Friday.
For the past week, the rescue efforts have been complicated by stormy weather and unstable conditions at the site — including shifting rubble, the threat of falling debris and fear that the remaining standing portion of the tower could topple, putting crews at risk. Levine Cava on Friday signed an order for the demolition of the building.
On Friday, the mayor said the demolition probably wouldn’t happen until late July, as staffers iron out plans to topple the building safely. “We’d prefer it fall in a controlled manner. But we may not have that opportunity,” Levine Cava said. “I understand getting it done in that period of time would be unprecedentedly fast.”
The county also went to court late Friday to try to get the condo board’s receiver to sign off on the demolition. A judge overseeing lawsuits filed by victims said it wasn’t necessary, paving the way for the demolition.
But the formation of Elsa — which was briefly a hurricane — elevated the stakes as the prospects of finding survivors in the adjacent rubble pile continued dimming. The mayor on Saturday announced a state of emergency in Miami-Dade, as did the governor for counties that could be affected by the storm.
“The fear was that the hurricane may take the building down for us — and take it down in the wrong direction, on top of the pile where we have victims,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said.
As of 5 p.m. Saturday, Elsa’s projected track remained west of Miami-Dade County, passing over Cuba, Key West and into the Gulf of Mexico. But officials warned that the county would experience stormy weather, and a slight shift in the track remains possible.
“As early as Monday afternoon, we can start to see more frequent rain bands and gusty winds and that will continue through Tuesday,” said Miami National Weather Service expert Robert Molleda.
The mayor made the decision after officials spoke to another demolition company Saturday.
That demolition company was identified as CDI Controlled Demolition Inc., of Phoenix, Maryland. It is being sub-contracted through BG Group, the Delray Beach demolition company hired by the Florida Department of Emergency Management to bring down the remaining portion of the building.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief of Operations Ray Jadallah told family members, in private briefings Saturday, that crews need up to 14 hours to prepare the building for demolition. They plan to drill holes into the columns of the first and second floors and plant explosives there.
Ideally, the building will collapse in place, with perhaps some debris falling onto Collins Avenue, he said.
He said the demolition will begin on the lower floors, causing the rest of the structure to collapse into a pile in place with some spill over onto Collins. Search and rescue will resume about 15 minutes to one hour once the demolition is completed, he said.
Jadallah said rescue workers will be able to access new areas that have not been searched on the west side of the pile and in the underground garage.
To distinguish the mountain of rubble that workers have been searching from the new pile that will result after the controlled demolition, Jadallah said, workers are placing a 6-inch-thick neoprene blanket over the existing mound of debris that once held 55 units of the Champlain Towers South.
Whatever debris from the demolition falls onto the existing pile can be removed using heavy equipment that will be ready to go once the demolition is complete, he said.
The remaining hours before the demolition also means frantic work for experts from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is leading an investigation into what caused the collapse. The National Science Foundation has also joined the team, Mayor Levine Cava said Saturday, and investigators are taking photos, videos and measurements of the remaining condo tower to help them pinpoint what led to the collapse.
“There is 3D imaging with drones to capture as much details about the structure while it is still standing,” she said.
Dump trucks are also hauling away “evidentiary” debris for later examination by researchers, she said.
The move to demolish the building has left survivors and their families with mixed emotions.
Steve Rosenthal, who escaped his seventh-floor apartment in Champlain Towers South the night of the collapse, told the Miami Herald on Saturday that the remainder of the building can’t come down fast enough.
“The sooner the better. It’s dangerous. It’s an eyesore. It doesn’t do anything for me,” said Rosenthal, who lived in unit 705 and accepted days ago that he’d be unable to retrieve belongings from his condo. ”There’s no way they’re going to let anyone in there to get anything. They’ve just got to knock it down,” he said. “It’s gone.”
Leo Soto, who organized a memorial that has become a place of prayer and reflection for politicians, athletes and families of the missing, said he understands the decision.
“I think it was eventually going to happen but the fact that it’s happening so soon is surprising, but it has to happen,” said Soto, whose friend Nicole Langesfeld is still missing in the rubble. “I don’t think anybody wants to stare at that building anymore.”
Rescuers are also aware of pets that may have remained in the part of the building that is still standing, Levine Cava said Saturday. She said crews have done three separate searches of the building — including with cameras — and have found no pets.
But crews have been unable to go inside units. “It’s not safe for anyone to go beyond the first floor,” Levine Cava said.
Earlier this week, Miami firefighters used a cherry picker to leave food and water for a cat named Coco believed to have been left behind on the unstable fourth floor of the upright condo building.
One bright spot: Emergency managers told families that a cat scampered up the debris pile and made its way into the standing structure, possibly the second or third floor. Rescuers placed a “cat trap” with food on one of the balconies to try to capture the cat before the demolition begins.
The challenges facing first responders have been daunting.
Thunderstorms have destabilized the two-story pile of crushed concrete and steel, while cracks and shifting debris have threatened to topple the remaining portion of the tower that remains upright.
There have been other challenges. Late Friday, official announced that six firefighters had tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier in the day, the body of the 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter was pulled from the rubble, adding another emotional blow to what has been a frustrating and exhausting rescue operation.
Christopher Diaz, a rescuer with Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 2, said on Saturday that the planned demolition would not change his focus on finding live victims in the rubble.
“Our mission is to find somebody alive,” Diaz told the Miami Herald. “We will not shift our mindset. We have a mission and we will complete it until every single person is accounted for.”
Diaz, a city of Miami firefighter, said he has been working 12-hour shifts for 10 straight days, not including the preparation and debriefing before and after each shift. Rescuers haven’t pulled someone out alive since the morning of the collapse June 24.
“We’re human. It hurts to see someone suffering like that, but the driving factor continues to be the same,” he said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2021 at 11:18 AM.
