SURFSIDE, Fla. (Reuters) – Rescue crews toiling into a seventh day on Wednesday combed through shattered ruins of a collapsed Miami-area condominium tower where 12 people were confirmed dead as hope faded for 149 people missing and believed trapped in the rubble.
Authorities have left open the possibility that survivors might be found in the debris after a major section of the 12-floor, 136-unit complex caved in on itself early last Thursday as residents slept.
“The way I look at it, as an old Navy guy, is that when somebody is missing in the military, you’re missing until you’re found, and we don’t stop the search,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told a news briefing.
But nobody has been pulled alive from the mounds of pulverized concrete, splintered lumber and twisted metal since the early hours of the disaster nearly a week ago, and prospects of further rescues fade by the hour.
Investigators have not concluded what caused nearly half of the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South condo to crumple, in what could rank as the deadliest accidental structural failure in U.S. history.