Source: Michael Reaves / Getty
The search for more bodies remaining after a condo building collapse in the Miami area continues as rescuers face challenges from the heavy amount of structure leftover to varying weather conditions.
Four new bodies have been found, bringing the total of those who have died to 16. The identities of those four have not been determined.
From WJW Fox 8 News Cleveland:
Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said that in addition to those four bodies, crews also found other human remains.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Wednesday that 147 people are missing and believed to be trapped in the rubble.
The latest victim was identified Wednesday morning as 92 year-old Hilda Noriega, according to Miami-Dade police.
Authorities said their efforts were still a search-and-rescue operation, but no one has been found alive from the mounds of pulverized concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since hours after the collapse on Thursday.
Family members of those who have yet to be found in the remains are continuing to “hold on to the hope that brought them there.” This comes as hopes for any survivors has increasingly faded.
As for the building itself, it is not known as of right now what lead to part of the four decades old Champlain Towers South condo to “crumple” early on June 24.
An engineer’s discovery in a 2018 report, however, concluded that the building had a lot of “structural deficiencies,” while a letter that was sent out to residents as recently as April warned of “concrete damage” around the condo’s base that has become “significantly worse.”
In the meantime, rescuers have been using resources such as “bucket brigades and heavy machinery” along with “firefighters, sniffer dogs and search experts using radar and sonar devices” to assist in the recovery as those involved are going through “a precarious mound of pulverized concrete, twisted steel and the remnants of dozens of households.”
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Article and First and Second Video Courtesy of NewsNation and WJW Fox 8 News Cleveland
First and Second Picture Courtesy of Michael Reaves and Getty Images
