Families are anxiously awaiting news about their missing loved ones aftera multistory condo partially collapsed in Florida— but for some, their hope is running thin.
While waiting for an update from police, Miami resident Pablo Rodriguez tearfully told the outlet he’s not confident that his 64-year-old mother and 88-year-old grandmother survived.
“I came to the center, but I have no hope,” Rodriguez, 40, explained toUSA Todayof his mother and grandmother, who both lived in the wing that collapsed.
According to Rodriguez, his last conversation with his mom was on Wednesday, when they spoke about having his grandmother and great-grandmother spend the weekend with his 6-year-old son.
The aftermath of the collapse of the Surfside Condo.Miami-Dade Fire Rescue/Twitter
Though Rodriguez felt the outcome for his family was grim, other loved ones were still holding out hope.
Nicolas Fernandez, who was also waiting at the reunification center, toldUSA Todayhe’s been attempting to contact his close family friends who also lived in the collapsed part of the building.
“Since it happened, I’ve been calling them nonstop, just trying to ring their cellphones as much as we can to help the rescue to see if they can hear the cellphones,” Fernandez explained to the outlet.
Silvana Juárez and Wendy Jean Louis said they, too, had loved ones in the building, according toUSA Today.
Juárez told the outlet that three of her good friends and a young child are still missing, while Louis said she was a caregiver of a family who lives in the building.
“I can see that’s where the unit was; that’s where their apartment was,” Louis told the outlet as she stared at the rubble. “I spend more than 10 hours here, they are my family.”
The aftermath of the Surfside Condo collapse.CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty
Those missing individuals are part of the 99 people who are still unaccounted for, Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirezconfirmed.
“We have people who ran down stairwells who exited themselves and others who don’t have records of transport,” Sally Heyman, the Miami-Dade County Commissioner, told theWashington Post. “They are unaccounted for because they have not been heard from or have not called family or friends to say they are okay.”
Of the 136 units, about 55 collapsed and search and rescue teams were able to pull out 35 occupants trapped in the building, Ray Jadallah, assistant fire chief of operations for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, said at apress conference.
An additional 10 people were assessed and treated, and two of those people were hospitalized, Jadallah said.CNNreported that one of those two people later died of their injuries.
Later on Thursday, Ramirez confirmed that 53 people have been accounted for.
The Surfside Condo building.Joe Raedle/Getty
Footage captured from the scene showed heroic rescues of people trapped inside, and Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, told theMiami Heraldthat teams were working on bringing a child to safety.
“It’s bad,” Rollason told the outlet. “We got some people out. They had to cut away railings… Everyone who is alive is out the building.”
Rollason added that earlier, crews were able to save a mother and her child, though the mother’s leg had to be amputated to get her out of the rubble.
CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Barry Cohen, the former vice mayor of Surfside, Florida, and his wife, Ofi,also survived the collapse, telling theHeraldhe was sleeping in his third-floor condo when he awoke to what he called “a bang that just kept on going.”
At this time, the cause of the collapse remains unknown. The Miami-Dade Police Department is leading an investigation, and officials said search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
source: people.com
