Israelis come trained by war. Mexican, from natural disaster.
When it comes to collapsed buildings, there is a cadre of international rescue personnel ready to cross the border at a moment’s notice. Many on the Miami-Dade County team have experienced themselves abroad, most notably during the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The collaboration reflects the international nature of the Miami area, which is home to both Jewish and Latin American diaspora. Official briefings are given in Spanish and Haitian Creole in addition to English. The missing include relatives of the First Lady of Paraguay.
The exact roles of the Mexican and Israeli teams have not been detailed. Local officials say they have plenty of help and are moving rescue teams to keep personnel fresh. If nothing else, the international presence is symbolic and may provide some consolation, especially for the local Jewish community.
According to an Israeli official, more than two dozen Jews were among the missing and had links with Israel.
“It’s really painful,” Israel’s Consul General in Miami Maor Elbaz-Starinsky told WPLG television. “I for one can identify (with families) from Israel’s experience.”
Mexico’s “topos,” the Spanish word for moles, treated like heroes at home, earning fame for being buried in piles of rubble in disasters around the world, including the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. are also included.
Miami-Dade officials said they were on the ground in Florida on Friday, a day after the disaster.
Topos formed as a volunteer search-and-rescue group after a major earthquake that devastated Mexico City in 1985, saving lives in the working-class neighborhood of Tlatelolco, where the government had a poor response. .
They were known to be fearless workers, risking their lives to help others and traveling to disasters as far away as Haiti, Nepal and the Philippines.
After the 2017 earthquake that leveled parts of Mexico City, he worked his way in front of hundreds of people who had gathered around destroyed buildings.
Easily seen by their shiny jumpsuits and helmets, they will be greeted with cheers and applause when they arrive at a scene. But the crowd also fell silent when asked, in moments when rescuers had to remain silent to hear any buried survivors.
The IDF said in a statement that the Israeli rescue teams come from the Israeli Defense Forces, the country’s military, which includes about 10 reserve officers from the Home Front Command, along with personnel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Israel’s Minister for Overseas Affairs Nachman Shai tweeted a photo of his meeting with US officials and the local synagogue rabbi near the disaster site.
Charles Burkett, the mayor of the Miami suburb of Surfside where the disaster struck, described a meeting between Israelis and the families of the missing.
“They wanted to know if the Israeli team thought the Miami-Dade team was doing the right thing,” Burkett told reporters on Sunday. “The commander of the Israeli team did not hesitate, turning back and saying, ‘They are doing the right thing.