12-Story Building Collapsed In South Beach Miami Leaving Many People Missing Or Dead

Over 150 people are still unaccounted for after a 12-story condo building partially collapsed in Surfside, near Miami Beach on Thursday morning, leaving at least four people dead and 11 injured, according to officials.

Rescuers have continued to look through the debris of the building located in Florida's Miami-Dade County, for any survivors Friday morning and are not giving up soon.

The assistant chief of operations for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Raide Jadallah, said that 55 of the building's 136 units collapsed about 1:30 a.m. Thirty-five people were pulled from the collapsed part of the building, and only two people had been pulled out of the rubble later in the day, Jadallah said.

There were 120 people accounted for from the building and 159 people unaccounted for.

On Friday, Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County said in an interview that the death toll had grown from one to four.

"Tragically, I woke up to learn that three bodies had been pulled from the rubble last night," she said. "Devastating news for families waiting for any hope of survival. And of course, we're going to continue to search. Those three people have not been identified at this time. It does bring our count to four of those who've lost their lives in this tragedy."

As on Sunday evening, the death toll had increased to nine. According to Ms. Levine Cava, more bodies and remains were recovered when rescuers began to dig a trench into the pile of debris overnight on Saturday. She said the trench, which will be about 125 feet long — roughly the width of a football field — 20 feet wide and 40 feet deep, will serve as a critical way to assist in the operation.

The Miami-Dade Police Department identified the victims on Sunday night as Leon Oliwkowicz, 80; Luis Bermudez, 26; Anna Ortiz, 46; and Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74. The bodies of Mr. Oliwkowicz, Mr. Bermudez, and Ms. Ortiz were recovered on Saturday; Ms. Ortiz was recovered on Sunday.

More than 300 emergency personnel are working 24 hours a day, and the Army Corps of Engineers has been called in to help.

“We are not resource-poor,” said the mayor. “We don’t have a resource problem, we’ve had a luck problem. We just need to start to get a little luckier right now.”

While the final toll of how many people were killed or injured remains unknown, it may be one of the deadliest accidental building collapses in American history.

Quite a number of people were in the building at the time of the collapse, and some were able to make their way to the front of the structure as the back fell, officials said.

Rescuers with sonar equipment were carefully navigating the collapse in hopes of finding more people.

"It is a very slow and methodical process because every time we start breaching parts of the structure, we get debris that falls on us," said Jadallah, adding that a small fire sparked by the moving rubble had to be put out.

Amid the search operations, some have asked why it has taken so long and whether there is any hope for those left inside.

Officials have, however, assured the public that the local search team, which has been sent to disasters around the world and is now working with teams from Israel and Mexico, was doing everything it could. The dangers to the rescuers and missing residents are clear and dictate that the process must be slow and deliberate, experts say.

When being interviewed on the issue, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who visited the site on Saturday said, “Inside of there, there is everything from toxic chemicals to fire, smoke, all kinds of other hazards. They have to be very careful. If they move one piece of rebar here, the rest of the pile could collapse somewhere else and either hurt the responders or hurt any survivors that might still be down there."

Paraguay’s foreign minister, Euclides Acevedo, said in an interview that members of the presidential family were among those missing. They were identified as Sophia López Moreira, the sister of the first lady Silvana López Moreira, and her husband, Luis Pettengill. Their three children and Lady Luna Villalba, a worker accompanying the family, were also missing, Acevedo said.