The Guara family.Photo: gofundme
Search and recovery efforts at the site of the Florida condo collapse have been temporarily halted amid concerns about the stability of the standing building, one day after officials confirmed the deaths of the two youngest victims yet.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cavasaid Thursdaythat operations were paused early this morning “due to structural concerns about the standing structure.”
The temporary stop in operations was based upon the expertise of on-site structural engineers who expressed fears about 6-12 inches of movement in a large column hanging from the structure that could possibly fall and damage support columns in the garage area, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said.
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“We’ve been working in a very, very unsafe environment,” he said. “Just last night, as we were actively producing our search and rescue efforts, our [crack] monitors went off. We had three that signaled there was some expansion… with those cracks, so immediately we removed, as well as there was shifting with that column.”
Cava said the search and rescue operation would continue “as soon as it is safe to do so.”
The pause comes just one day afterpolice identified four additional victimsin thecollapse of Champlain Towers Southin Surfside, which happened in the early hours of June 24. The total number of victims is 18 as of Thursday morning.
Mourners at the site of the Surfside condo collapse.Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty
The bodies of Lucia Guara, 10, and her younger sister Emma Guara, 4, were recovered on Wednesday, making them the first child victims identified in the tragedy.
“Any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event is a tragedy. But the loss of ourchildren is too great to bear,“Mayor Cava said on Wednesday night. “We’re now standing united once again with this terrible new revelation that children are the victims as well.”
Tributes on the wall at the site of the Surfside condo collapse.Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty
AGoFundMe pagein honor of the Guara family has raised more than $14,000, and friends have used the space as a way to pay tribute to their late loved ones.
“Lucia was in my mindfulness classes I offered at Ruth K. Broad [Bay Harbor Elementary School],” one woman wrote. “She was a bright light and brought her kind spirit to each weekly class. A beautiful soul.”
As the search for additional survivors and victims heads into its eighth day, 139 people are now accounted for, and 147 remain missing.
source: people.com
