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U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration in
the state of Florida and ordered federal assistance to
supplement state and local response efforts.
"The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland
Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to
coordinate all disaster relief efforts," the White House said on
Friday.
Rescue crews picked through tons of rubble on Thursday looking
for survivors.
Search teams detected sounds of banging and other noises but no
voices coming from the mounds of debris hours after a large
section of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, a
barrier island town across Biscayne Bay from the city, crumbled
to the ground, authorities said.
Footage captured by a security camera nearby showed an entire
side of the building crumbling in two sections, one after the
other, throwing up clouds of dust at about 1:30 a.m. (0530 GMT)
on Thursday.
What caused the 40-year-old high-rise to cave in within seconds
was not immediately known, although local officials said the
12-storey tower was undergoing roof construction and other
repairs.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters on
Thursday 99 people remained unaccounted for some 18 hours after
the collapse, though some may not have been in the building at
the time.
Another 102 individuals whose whereabouts were initially unknown
have since been located and "declared safe," she said.
A fire official said earlier that 35 people were evacuated from
the portion of the high-rise left standing, and response teams
using trained dogs and drones in the search pulled two
individuals from the rubble. One of them was dead.
ABC News later reported https://abcn.ws/3dfFS9s that at least
three people had died in the disaster, citing a county official.
Officials said the complex, built in 1981, was going through a
re-certification process requiring repairs, with another
building under construction on an adjacent site.
The Champlain Towers South had more than 130 units, about 80 of
which were occupied. It had been subject to various inspections
recently due to the re-certification process and the adjacent
building construction, Surfside Commissioner Charles Kesl told
Local 10.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore and Mike Collett-White)
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