The death toll from the Florida condo collapse has risen to at least nine, officials said at a press briefing Sunday.
Four additional bodies were pulled from the rubble of Surfside Champlain Towers South on Sunday, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. The new bodies were added to the five people already confirmed dead.
“Additional human remains” also were recovered from the site over the weekend, Cava said — adding that officials are having “very frank discussions” with the families of those still missing, according to the Miami Herald.
The mayor said eight of the fatal victims were found dead at the site, while the ninth person died in a local hospital.
“We’ve identified four of the victims and notified next of kin,” she said. “We are making every effort to identify those others who have been recovered and additionally contacting their family members as soon as we are able.”
But the mayor said efforts to find survivors continue around the clock.
Cava said workers had dug a 125-foot-long ditch at the site that is 40 feet deep and 20 feet wide, allowing them to access portions of the rubble to recover the four new bodies.
The 12-story building collapsed around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, burying scores of residents inside, many of them foreign nationals, authorities said. About 150 people are still reported missing.
“Our rescue teams are nonstop doing all that we can, searching every area, every bit of hope to see if we can find a live victim,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said at the briefing.
Officials said FEMA is at the scene, as are Israeli and Mexican crews, to help sift through the collapsed building.
“We’ll be discussing with the county about whether we need additional personnel to backfill them,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “Obviously, you’re going to start to see a lot of major debris moved out of there.
The debris that gets out does have forensic value,” he said.
