Collapsed building in Florida: research suspended, building soon destroyed

Published on : 07/04/2021 – 07:19

Two new victims were found in the rubble of the collapsed building in Florida, bringing the death toll to 24, authorities said on Saturday who, because of storm Elsa, decided to demolish the rest of the building earlier than planned .

“There are now 24 victims” and 121 people missing, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters, recalling that this figure was set to change.

Precautionary measure

Most of the 12-story building, named Champlain Towers South, collapsed in the middle of the night on June 24 in a cloud of dust, one of the most serious urban disasters in US history.

The rest of the building will be demolished, with authorities fearing it will collapse in turn, threatening the safety of rescuers.

The search operations for the victims were thus interrupted in the afternoon, the time of “the preparation of the demolition”, declared Daniella Levine Cava.

Without communicating a specific date, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Saturday that the building should be able to be destroyed before the arrival of tropical storm Elsa, which will hit his state early next week, probably Tuesday.

So far, authorities had explained that the destruction could take weeks. “Destroying this building, given that a storm is coming and we were going to have to do it anyway, is safe,” he added.

This could be done “in 36 hours”, and the searches should stop “a little before” and then resume “a little later”, the time to ensure “that no fire broke out”, he said. he explains.

Several cases of Covid-19 have been detected in one of the search teams, said Alan Cominsky, Miami fire chief, on Friday.

“This team has been demobilized,” he added, and “medical protocols” have been put in place, in particular to isolate the people concerned.

With AFP