Matias J. Ocner
The rescuers also struggled on Tuesday to penetrate further into the rubble mountain under difficult conditions. The chances of finding survivors are dwindling every hour. But the helpers do not give up. At the moment, however, they only have sad discoveries to report anew every day. Eleven dead have been pulled from the rubble so far. 150 people are still missing. How much longer is there hope?
The twelve-story building in the US state of Florida with around 130 residential units had collapsed about halfway from nowhere. Images from surveillance cameras of adjacent buildings captured the dramatic moment. People were surprised by the collapse in their sleep. The authorities have drawn up a long list of people who may have been in the house at the time of the accident: 150 names are still on that list.
Not all of them have to have been in the building, not all of them have to be buried. But the fact that the investigators were unable to locate people anywhere else after several days of intensive searches gives rise to fears for the worst. Experts expect that the number of deaths will increase significantly.
Emergency teams started work immediately after the collapse. Several dozen people were saved right from the start. But in the past few days only gloomy news followed. The number of dead found rose steadily: first to four, then to five, to nine, to ten and finally to eleven.
The mayor of Miami-Dade district, Daniella Levine Cava, has the tough task of sharing devastating news every day at impromptu press briefings at the scene of the accident, along with the police, fire brigade and other officials. According to their information, the emergency services also discovered “human remains”, i.e. parts of bodies that were torn apart by the force of the collapse. The sight of the search parties at work is beyond the imagination.
Family members were asked for DNA samples to identify the victims. This process is not easy, says Levine Cava time and again. Above all, however, she emphasizes one thing at every appearance: The search for survivors continues. Don’t give up.
But when does the mission change from looking for possible survivors to rescuing the dead? This uncomfortable question is being asked of the authorities in Florida with increasing urgency every day. Miami-Dade District Fire Department deputy chief Raide Jadallah said Monday (local time) it was a misunderstanding to believe that the search for survivors ends automatically after a certain amount of time. “That is by no means the case.” Such a decision depends on many factors.
In the rubble of the house, the search parties with cameras discovered cavities that were potentially large enough that people could be there, said Jadallah. The teams would not have been able to penetrate these areas themselves, but were working on them. According to Levine Cava, they dug a kind of trench in the middle of the mountain of rubble in order to be able to penetrate deeper into the rubble. The search teams are on duty around the clock – with sniffer dogs, special cameras, listening instruments and heavy equipment. Rubble that is removed from the building is transported to a warehouse for investigations into the cause of the accident.
It is still unclear why the residential complex known as Champlain Tower South from the 1980s collapsed. US media reported on letters from the property management company, which warned of the need to renovate millions of euros with reference to structural risks. Investigators will investigate whether the apparently due renovations were related to the collapse.
Meanwhile, many families fear for their relatives and are increasingly desperate to ask why the search is progressing so slowly. Jadallah said the situation was “complex”. Some of the emergency services were dealing with pulverized concrete, some of the concrete rubble was the size of a basketball or baseball. The rubble is moving with every movement. You couldn’t just lift a huge chunk of concrete to one side and that was the end of it. “It’s a twelve-story building,” he emphasized. “That will take time.”
Fire chief Alan Cominsky also emphasized that the situation was very demanding, difficult and “extremely dangerous”. In the meantime, a fire in the rubble and heavy rain had significantly hampered the search.
Some relatives have given up hope. Pablo Rodriguez, for example, was initially confident that the search teams would be able to save his mother and grandmother. Now he no longer believes in it, the 40-year-old told the Washington Post: “I have no hope that you will find them alive and that I can actually see or speak to them again.” He just hopes that the search parties will find “something” “so that we can properly bury them”.