Dr. Jill Biden hugs Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava as she arrives with President Joe Biden and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Surfside Wall of Hope & Memorial near the Champlain Towers South condo collapse on Thursday July 1, 2021 in Surfside, Fl. The Bidens visited with search and rescue teams and first responders to thank them for their service. (Susan Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Search and rescue crews remained sifting through the rubble at the site of the Surfside condo building collapse, while officials consider demolishing the remaining portion of the standing building.
Search-and-rescue efforts resumed in the areas considered safe Thursday evening after a pause of more than 15 hours.
Sections of the debris have been labeled into a grid. Rescuers are only able to resume searching in three of the nine portions of the grid, said Alan Cominsky, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief.
The rest of the standing building will likely be taken down, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, but the decision needs to be made methodically to evaluate all possible impacts to the pile of debris and to the continued search-and-rescue efforts.
Scott Nacheman, a structures specialist with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said there is not yet a definitive timeline for when the remaining building will be torn down, but a decision could take weeks, at best. If the building were demolished, Nacheman said, it would initially slow rescue efforts.
Local officials paused the search in the early hours of Thursday morning after structural engineers expressed concerns about movement of a portion of the Champlain Towers South complex that did not collapse when other sections fell one week ago.
Teams of state experts are studying the problem: widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column.
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No survivors have been found since the initial hours after the disaster. The official count is 18 dead and 145 people unaccounted for.
In an attempt to avoid a similar tragedy, Surfside is requesting property owners begin assessing their buildings 30 years and older and over three stories tall before the typical 40-year recertification.
Property owners with buildings that fit the description and those with buildings on the east side of Collins Avenue near the ocean should hire a licensed geotechnical engineer to analyze “the foundation and subsurface soils,” said a letter from the Surfside Building Department.
TIMELINE: Signs of trouble before the deadly tower collapse in Surfside ？
In remarks to the country on Thursday, President Joe Biden stressed the importance of continuing the rescue mission as soon as experts clear the way. And he says it’s critical for investigations to find out why the 40-year-old tower fell, whether adjacent towers are safe, and how to prevent the same kind of collapse from happening elsewhere.
“We’re committed not only to recover but to restore safety across the board,” he said.
Biden met privately with affected family members for over three hours, then spoke about their ordeal.
“The whole nation is mourning with these families,” he said. “They’re going through hell, those who survived the collapse as well as those missing loved ones.”
President Joe Biden meets with first responders in Miami Beach on Thursday, members of the crews who have been working on the condo tower that collapsed in Surfside last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh/AP)
Pledges of help
The president began his visit by receiving a briefing from Gov. Ron DeSantis, Levine Cava and other officials at the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort.
“I want to pick up 100% of the cost from the county and the state over the first 30 days,” Biden said in his opening remarks. “I think I’m quite sure I can do that.”
The president said federal support is critical because “there’s going to be a lot of pain, and anxiety and suffering, and the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow, and so we’re not going anywhere, for real.”
“Mr. President, we cannot thank you enough for being here with us, for showing your extraordinary support from day one,” Levine Cava said. “We are going to be examining every inch of this catastrophe.”
DeSantis also thanked Biden for the federal government’s assistance, noting that it’s been free of any bureaucratic obstacles.
“What we just need now is a little bit of luck, a little bit of prayer,” the governor said. “We would like to see some miracles happen.”
President Joe Biden, center, flanked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, and Incident Commander Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, right, listens during a briefing with first responders and local officials in Miami Beach, on Thursday about the condo tower that partially collapsed in Surfside last week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (Susan Walsh/AP)
Movement in debris pile
Crews early Thursday spotted several expansions in cracks they had been monitoring. They also observed 6 to 12 inches of movement in a large column hanging from the structure “that could fall and cause damage to support columns” in an underground parking garage, Cominsky said.
Workers also noticed movement in the debris pile and slight movement in some concrete floor slabs “that could cause additional failure of the building,” he said.
Critical points around the site have been monitored with sensors since the rescue operation began, Nacheman said. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said there were alarming indications of movement Wednesday night at three locations.
“What was of specific concern was that over the last six days we had not seen that type of significant movement, or in some locations any movement in those elements of the structure,” Nacheman said Thursday during a briefing for family members.
Heavy equipment in the rubble pile caused vibrations, according to Nacheman. Rain has also been entering exposed parts of the building, saturating items and adding weight to the floors, according to the AP report.
Emergency managers were watching Hurricane Elsa, which has formed in the Atlantic. All of South Florida remains in its forecast path, though no storm impacts are expected through Saturday.
Before the unexpected pause on the search efforts, the work had accelerated Wednesday with the addition of a new ramp and a crane to haul away massive pieces of concrete — offering a glimmer of hope to families of missing residents.
Mindful of the fears gripping relatives of the suspected victims, authorities had vowed to continue the search around the clock.
“Obviously we believe that continuing searching is something that’s very, very important,” the governor said.
Authorities say the public can help too. Miami-Dade police are asking for anyone who may have witnessed the collapse or has photos or videos to contact a tip line at 305-428-4417 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 1 a.m.
Remembering the victims
Authorities have released the names of 17 victims so far. All but one was found dead at the site.
Miami-Dade police on Thursday identified a 17th victim as 80-year-old Magaly Elena Delgado. Rescuers recovered her body Wednesday.
At least 139 residents have been counted as safe.
RELATED: Remembering the dead and missing in Florida condo collapse ？
Across the street from the wreckage, people continued to come pray and pay respects at a memorial near St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Several members of the congregation are either missing or dead, including the Guara family with the two young sisters Lucia and Emma, according to WPLG-Ch. 10.
Staff writers Alex DeLuca and Brooke Baitinger contributed to this report.
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