Search crews in South Florida are expected to get a break from hazardous weather conditions Wednesday as they continue searching for people who were inside a condominium building that collapsed nearly two weeks ago.
The search had to be halted for about two hours Tuesday due to lightning and high wind gusts from Hurricane Elsa. The storm is impacting Florida but moving away from the site of the collapse in Surfside, north of Miami.
Crews recovered eight bodies on Tuesday, bringing the overall death toll to 36 people.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters at an evening briefing that 109 people remained unaccounted for.
Workers are continuing to go through the pile of rubble, a process officials called delayering, as they search for people and any evidence as to help explain why the 12-story building partially collapsed early on June 24.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said Tuesday 112 metric tons of debris had been removed from the site. Police are cataloguing and storing the material in a secure location in order to aid with their ongoing investigation into what happened.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett has pledged that the search operation will go on “until everybody is pulled out of that site.”
He praised the search crews Tuesday for their work amid dangerous conditions.
“They truly have performed way above and beyond the call of duty,” Burkett told reporters.
This report includes information from the Associated Press and Reuters
