Associated Press Created: June 29, 2021 06:24 PM
Elected officials pledged Tuesday to conduct multiple investigations into the collapse of an oceanfront Florida condo tower, vowing to convene a grand jury and to look closely “at every possible angle” to prevent any other building from experiencing such a catastrophic failure.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she and her staff will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts, among others, to review building safety issues and develop recommendations to ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again.”
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she will pursue a grand jury investigation to examine factors and decisions that led to Thursday’s collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside. Another victim was recovered Tuesday, bringing the confirmed death toll to 12, with 149 people unaccounted for.
1 of 39
People gather at a vigil, late Monday, June 28, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. The vigil remembered those that died, are missing and those injured after a residential building collapsed last Thursday.
Marta Lavandier - staff, AP
Workers cut a large slab of concrete at the Champlain Towers South condo, Monday, June 28, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Many people were still unaccounted for after Thursday s fatal collapse.
Marta Lavandier - staff, AP
Michelle Cash plays a quartz crystal merkaba during a vigil, Monday, June 28, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. The vigil remembered those who died, are missing and those injured after a residential building collapsed last Thursday.
Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors and to recover remains in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29, 2021 in Surfside, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP)
The official death toll in the collapse of a Miami-area condominium tower rose to 12 Tuesday, as officials vowed to press ahead with rescue operations for the 149 still missing, even as hoped dimmed for finding anyone alive in the mountain of rubble where the building once stood.
On the sixth day of a painstaking search for survivors under the collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South, Governor Ron DeSantis evoked a well-known military commitment to leave no one behind on the battlefield and pledged to do the same for the people still missing in the rubble.
Rescue workers search the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condominium, Saturday. Search and rescue teams found another victim buried underneath the rubble on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 12.
Officials leading a rescue mission at the site of a collapsed 12-story residential building in Surfside, Fla., are asking the federal government to send a search team to relieve the Florida personnel with severe weather expected in the coming days.
Kevin Guthrie of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said his agency requested the new crew on Tuesday, saying state officials are preparing for more rain, thunderstorms and lighting. As search-and-rescue teams sifted through debris and rubble for the sixth consecutive day sometimes by hand Guthrie said the extra hands would ensure that the state rescue teams are available in case the storms don t let up.
Florida officials pledge multiple probes into condo collapse
By TERRY SPENCERJune 29, 2021 GMT
SURFSIDE, Florida (AP) Elected officials pledged Tuesday to conduct multiple investigations into the collapse of an oceanfront Florida condo tower, vowing to convene a grand jury and to look closely “at every possible angle” to prevent any other building from experiencing such a catastrophic failure.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she and her staff will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts, among others, to review building safety issues and develop recommendations “to ensure a tragedy like this will never, ever happen again.”
Surfside Collapse: Full coverage