SURFSIDE, FLA. Officials overseeing the search at the site of the Florida condominium collapse sounded increasingly somber Tuesday about the prospects for finding anyone alive, saying they have detected no new signs of life in the rubble as the death toll climbed to 36. Crews in yellow helmets and blue jumpsuits searched the debris for a 13th day while wind and rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Elsa complicated their efforts. Video released by the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department showed workers lugging pickaxes and power saws through piles of concrete rubble barbed with snapped steel rebar. Other searchers could be seen digging with gloved hands through pulverized concrete and dumping shovels of debris into large buckets.
Updated July 6
Searchers at condo collapse site ‘not seeing anything positive’
Officials say they have detected no new signs of life in the rubble as the death toll climbed to 32.
By TERRY SPENCERAssociated Press
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Workers with Surfside Public Works sweep up dead flowers from a makeshift memorial for victims of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium building Tuesday in Surfside, Fla.
Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
SURFSIDE, Fla. Officials overseeing the search at the site of the Florida condominium collapse sounded increasingly somber Tuesday about the prospects for finding anyone alive, saying they have detected no new signs of life in the rubble as the death toll climbed to 36.
Every single life that has been lost is a beloved family, friend, a best friend, someone s child, or parent, or niece, or cousin or grandparent and we know that waiting for news is unbearable. Levine Cava said.
Levine Cava said search and rescue efforts were temporarily halted earlier Tuesday due to lightning and tropical winds but resumed after two hours. Rescue teams were able to remove a total of 5 million pounds of debris from the site, with some being used as evidence to investigate the cause of the collapse.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is working with structural specialists, detectives and fire rescue crews on-site to continue its federal investigation into the collapse, Levine Cava said. The U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation are also expected to send additional staff to help with the probe.
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The centre of Elsa was about 155 miles (250 km) south-southwest of Tampa, Florida, and was moving north at around 9 miles per hour (15 km per hour), with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph (110 km/h), the NHC said in a late afternoon advisory. A storm becomes a hurricane when maximum sustained winds reach 74 mph.
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Try refreshing your browser, or Tropical Storm Elsa to become hurricane before reaching Florida Gulf Coast Back to video
A hurricane watch was in effect from Egmont Key, in the Tampa Bay region, to the Steinhatchee River some 180 miles north along the Gulf Coast, with Elsa due to make landfall on Wednesday morning. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said landfall was expected between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. ET around the Tampa Bay area.
2021-07-07 03:05:10 GMT2021-07-07 11:05:10(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
WASHINGTON, July 6 (Xinhua) The confirmed death toll in the partial collapse of a 12-story residential building in Surfside, southeastern U.S. state Florida, has risen to 36, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at an evening news briefing on Tuesday.
There are 109 reports of people who are potentially unaccounted for, the mayor said.
Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said they failed to find any positive signs in regard to voids or livable spaces as rescue workers continue to search the rubble left behind. Unfortunately we re not seeing anything positive, Cominsky said.