Elected officials on Tuesday promised to conduct multiple investigations into the collapse of a beachfront Florida condo tower, convening a grand jury and detailing “at every possible angle” to prevent any other building from suffering such a catastrophic failure. promised to see.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levin Cava said she and her staff will meet with engineering, construction and geology experts to review building safety issues and develop recommendations “to ensure that this Such a tragedy will never happen, never again.”
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she would pursue a grand jury investigation to examine the factors and decisions that led to Thursday’s Fall of the 12-Story Champlain Towers South In Surfside. Another victim was recovered on Tuesday, taking the death toll to 12, In which 149 people are unaccounted for.
Even as officials looked to the future to determine the cause of the collapse, they were determined to continue the effort to find survivors.
in pictures | Desperate search for survivors after Miami building collapse
On the sixth day of a painstaking search, Governor Ron DeSantis called for a famous military commitment not to leave anyone behind on the battlefield and vowed to do the same for those missing in the rubble.
“The way I see it, as an old Navy man, when someone is missing in action in the army, you are missing until you are found. We don’t stop the search,” DeSantis said at a news conference.
“I think that’s what’s happening. Those first responders are breaking their backs and trying to find anyone. I think they’ll continue to do that. They’ve been so selfless. They got to do that.” Put yourself at risk.”
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett cited the case of a woman who was found alive 17 days after a garment factory collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013, killing more than 1,000 people.
“No one is giving up hope here. … we are dedicated to getting everyone out of the rubble pile,” Burkett said.
Also on Tuesday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Surfside on Thursday.
Martin Langsfeld, whose sister, 26-year-old Nicole Langsfeld, is missing in the fall, also expressed hope that there were still survivors.
“We are not alone in this. There is hope now. I truly believe that miracles do happen. Things like this have happened all over the world,” he said during a vigil on the beach near the collapsed building on Monday night.
The collapse has sparked investigations into the safety of older tall buildings throughout South Florida. KAWA ordered a 30-day audit to see whether buildings 40 years or older are complying with the required recertification of their structural integrity, and addressing any issues raised by the inspection.
Read: Death toll in Florida condo collapse rises to 9, 150 still missing
On Tuesday, the mayor said building inspections at a building in Miami-Dade County found four balconies that “should be closed immediately due to safety concerns.”
Previous grand injuries in South Florida have prompted investigations into other large-scale disasters, such as the 2018 collapse of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University, which killed six people. That investigation continues.
Criminal charges are possible in such cases, such as charges of third-degree felony and murder, which were brought about in the 1996 crash of Velujet Flight 592, which killed 110 people in the Everglades.
The work on the site has been deliberate and treacherous. Overnight debris fell into the search area from the broken side of the part of the building that still stands. Burkett told Miami television station WSVN that this forced rescuers to mark the “don’t go any further” line and focus their efforts on the parts of the rubble pile that are further away from the structure.
Several members of an Israeli rescue team worked on a small piece of rubble, partly on hands and knees, on Tuesday, digging with shovels, pickaxes and saws. They removed debris in buckets that were dumped in a metal construction bin, which was periodically removed by a crane. The crane then delivered an empty bin.
In the afternoon, rescue officers sounded the horn for the second time during the day’s work, indicating an approaching storm with lightning. The workers were temporarily fired.
Read also: At least 4 killed, 159 others missing in Florida building collapse
Officials said it was still a search and rescue operation, but no one had been found alive since hours after the fall on Thursday.
The building’s pancake collapse led to layer upon layer of interconnected debris, making desperate attempts to reach anyone who survived in the pockets of space.
Officials often meet with families to explain what they are doing and answer questions. The mayor said he has discussed how DNA matches are done to help identify the dead, how next of kin will be contacted and in “extreme detail” how they are searching the mound. .
With that knowledge, Kawa said, the families are coming to their own conclusions.
“Some are feeling more hopeful, some are less hopeful, because we don’t have definite answers. We give them the facts. We take them to the site,” she said. “He has seen the operation. They now understand how it works, and they are preparing themselves for news, somehow.”
Rachel Spiegel, whose mother, Judy Spiegel, 66, is missing, said Tuesday she was hoping for a miracle, but also wrote about looking beyond the tragedy.
“Our mom Judy was the glue that held our family together. Over the past 65 years our fathers and mothers have lost all family mementos, photos, clothes and heirlooms in seconds,” Spiegel said in a message on his mother’s behalf about setting up a fund for charity. Wrote. “As we continue to seek meaning in this catastrophe, we must also look to the future and rebuild.”
In a text message exchange with the Associated Press, he said, “Please keep praying for the miracle.”
Read also: Theories Abound on Why the Florida Condo High-Rise Collapsed