Condo collapse live updates: Rescue efforts resume at site, 17th victim identified

Rescue crews are at the 12-story oceanfront condo tower that partially collapsed in Surfside, just north of Miami Beach. The portion of Champlain Towers South that crumbled faces the ocean.

People with loved ones at the condo, missing or safe, should call 305-614-1819 to notify officials. Anyone who lives at the Champlain Towers and is safe is asked to complete a Wellness Check form to help the Miami-Dade County keep track of tenants.

Here’s what we know so far:

Red Cross Disaster Team offers grief help to survivors and families of victims

10:30 p.m.: Chuck Scripter was sitting on a long line of large plastic white barriers Thursday that span the length of the beach, facing the rubble of Champlain Towers South.

Even though storm clouds gathered over the ocean’s horizon, the sun beat down relentlessly on the consistent string of people — mostly alone or in pairs — who wander up to the barriers to take in the disaster. Many are local while a few know people who are among the disappeared.

All are grieving.

Scripter, an 84-year-old originally from Nebraska, is a member of a senior volunteer program serving on the Red Cross Disaster Team. At Surfside, he’s on the spiritual care unit of the disaster team, acting as a grief counselor of sorts.

He provides emotional support — as well as spiritual support and resources for those who ask — to those affected by traumatic events like the Champlain Towers collapse.

He is among the hundreds of volunteers and support staff that have come in from across the world to help Surfside through one of the worst disasters that Florida has seen in years.

For the past week, he’s been posted inside Grand Beach Hotel Surfside, which is currently serving as the city’s family reunification center.

Scripter helps family members talk through their grief in whatever way works best for them. Whether they ask him to connect them to a local pastor or rabbi or religious group, or whether they just want to talk about their week, Scripter is there to listen.

But President Joe Biden’s visit to the family reunification center on Thursday means that the hotel is off limits for the day. So instead, Scripter was on the beach, waiting to chat with anyone who wants to talk.

A middle-aged couple approached the barricades, and Scripter called them over. They chated, told him they’re locals and that their sons went to high school with one of the missing.

“Regardless of who you are, whether you know the victims or you’re a first responder or you’re a journalist, there’s going to be some first-hand or second-hand trauma, so I’m just here to speak to anyone who needs it,” Scripter said.

He spoke to the couple for a long while — about their sons and the collapse and their worries about their own high-rise apartment.

“Somewhere in your life, you’re going to go through loss, and people are going to be there to help you through it,” he said. “That changes you. That leaves a kind of footprint inside you. I know it did for me. And that’s what drives me to do that kind of thing for others.”

The extended exposure to grief does weigh on him at times, he said. But he tries his best to keep things light. He’s part of a team of eight, and his favorite way to lighten the mood with his fellow volunteers, is cracking jokes.

“This one’s my favorite. ‘Do you know why senior citizens go to church so much?’” He pauses, then a mischievous smile lights up Scripter’s face. “’Because they’re cramming for finals.’”

-Alexandra Pitchon

Another victim pulled from rubble identified. Death toll remains at 18.

8:00 p.m.: Miami-Dade police released the identity of the 17th victim in the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South.

Magaly Elena Delgado, 80, was found on Wednesday. The death toll remained at 18 with 145 people unaccounted for and 130 accounted for.

The 16 victims who had already been identified are: Lucia Guara, 10; Emma Guara 4; Anaely Rodriguez, 42; Andreas Giannitsopoulos, 21; Hilda Noriega, 92; Marcus Joseph Guara, 52; Frank Kleiman, 55; Michael Altman, 50; Leon Oliwkowicz, 80; Luis Bermúdez, 26; Ana Ortiz, 46, Bermúdez’s mother; Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74; Stacie Fang, 54,; Anthony Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79, and Manuel LaFont, 54.

Read more here.

Rescue work resumes at Surfside condo collapse site

5:00 p.m.: The search for life among the rubble of the fallen Surfside condo resumed Thursday at 4:45 p.m., after structural engineers determined it was safe to resume digging, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said during an early evening briefing.

But the rescue effort - for the time being - will only continue on three of the nine grids because of loose concrete on upper floors of the building and the instability of the rubble, said structural engineer Scott Nacheman.

“Debris in the pile and debris in the building displaced,” he said. The building itself, has not moved.

“We still can’t go in the collapsed area, it’s too dangerous,” said Levine Cava.

Work has resumed in the pile’s most easter quadrants, B3, D2 and G3.

Levine Cava also said the county is “planning for the likely demolition of the building,” even as the search and rescue contine.

But Nacheman said if it is demolished, it won’t be for several weeks.

“Best case scenario,” he said, “we’re looking at weeks.” Nacheman said before demolition begins more studies have to be undertaken and the stakeholders need to come to some type of agreement.

Levine Cava said emergency managers are also keeping an eye on the storm percolating east of the Lesser Antilles and warned residents to prepare. Emergency managers said they have a contingency plan in place.

Florida FEMA Director Kevin Guthrie said his agency is prepared to handle up to three catastrophes at a time.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky, asked about pets, said rescue workers have been through the building three times and haven’t seen any animals.

As for his troops returning to work late this afternoon, he said it was “difficult sitting around.”

Cominsky also said a few cases of COVID have turned up.

“So we’re monitoring that, unfortunately,” he said.

-Chuck Rabin

Tell us your condo building concerns after Surfside collapse

2:00 p.m.: After the sudden the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South, the Miami Herald want to know about any concerns you’ve been facing in your own condo or high-rise apartment building.

These issues will guide coverage as investigations continue into the condo collapse.

Be sure to fill out the survey with any concerns regarding safety, building management, questions about real estate laws or anything else that might be relevant. A reporter will reach out before any information you submit is published.

Read more here.

How long can people survive under rubble?

1:05 p.m.: As the death toll rises and weather hampers the search and rescue at the Surfside condo collapse site, hope remains amid the wreckage.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett is one of many tirelessly leading the charge at the Champlain Towers South site.

This week, Burkett recalled a woman who was able to survive 17 days buried after a garment factory collapse in Bangladesh in May 2013. More than 1,000 died in that tragedy.

According to media reports at the time, Reshma Begum, then 19, told rescuers she nibbled on a pack of biscuits she had bought for breakfast before work and had bottles of water dropped into the debris by rescuers.

“Nobody is giving up hope here. Nobody is stopping. The work goes on full-force,” Burkett said. “We’re dedicated to get everyone out of that pile of rubble and reunite them with their families.”

Read the full story.

Search is paused because of structural concerns, officials say

12:09 p.m.: A confluence of concerns about the stability of the remaining structure at the site of the Champlain Towers South collapse has forced officials to call back rescue crews that had been working nonstop over the last week, painstakingly removing debris and foraging trenches in desperate attempts to locate survivors.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky confirmed the development during a press briefing on Thursday morning. The agonizing decision, he said, was made just after 2 a.m. Cominsky described the threat of a large concrete column hanging over a subterranean parking area, which has moved six to 12 inches. He added that crews were also alerted to widening cracks and “slight movement” in a concrete slab on the southern side of the building.

High-tech monitors aimed at the tenuous pile of debris were responsible for making rescue workers aware of the dangerous shifts. Moments later, they were forced to lower cranes and pull back crews under the darkness of the early morning.

Read the full story.

President Biden arrives in Miami

9:32 a.m.: Air Force One has landed at Miami International Airport. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be traveling to Surfside, where a building partially collapsed last week.

The death toll is 18. There are 145 people missing.

Federal investigation into Surfside condo collapse begins

9:25 a.m.: The federal agency that pushed safety reforms after investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 2001 announced a similar probe Wednesday of the Surfside catastrophe — an inquiry that will likely last years.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been in Surfside since Sunday, and confirmed its plan to launch a full investigation with an aim of discovering what caused the Champlain Towers South building’s collapse and what changes in laws, building codes and regulations could be made to prevent another failure of that kind.

“We are going in with an open mind,” Judith Mitrani-Reiser, associate chief of the materials and structural systems division at NIST, said at a Wednesday evening press conference blocks from the Surfside collapse. “With any building collapse, we would want to understand how the building was designed, constructed, modified and maintained.”

Read the full story.

Is Champlain Tower South’s sister building safe? Surfside hits roadblock in review

8:55 a.m.: Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters Wednesday the town hit a roadblock in trying to reassure residents who are living in Champlain Towers North — another 1981 condo tower with the same design and developer as Champlain Towers South.

Burkett said residents of the North tower want to know if their building is safe. He said an engineer hired by Surfside has been reviewing the North tower’s plans but is “expressing concerns about those plans in that they may not be complete.”

At a press conference Wednesday evening, Burkett said Surfside is rushing to get additional documents for the review. He’s previously said that North Tower residents who want to relocate will be given assistance to do so.

- Douglas Hanks

Biden’s Surfside visit to affect traffic

8:44 a.m.: If you’re driving Thursday morning in North Miami-Dade, put some extra rush (safely) in your rush hour. Various roads will close as President Joe Biden lands for his visit to the Champlain Towers South collapse site in Surfside.

And expect the afternoon rush hour to feel like it’s starting a little early as the president heads back to the airport.

Exact presidential routes never are revealed. But common sense says if Air Force One lands at Miami International Airport, rolling roadblocks are possible on several highways and roads in the morning and afternoon, including State Road 112, State Road 836 (the Dolphin Expressway), and Interstate 95.

Learn more here.

Structural concerns halt search a week after condo collapse

7:40 a.m: Exactly one week after the Champlain Towers South building collapsed, rescue crews early Thursday stopped work amid concerns that the remaining structure could topple. Also, South Florida is bracing for the possible arrival of a tropical storm later in the week that could affect the site.

The new challenges arose Thursday as President Joe Biden prepares to visit Surfside to meet with rescue workers, console grieving families and deliver remarks about what could be the nation’s deadliest building collapse.

So far, rescuers have recovered the bodies of 18 people, and say another 145 remain missing. Late Wednesday, Miami-Dade police identified two sisters, 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara, as the latest victims in the condo collapse. Their parents also died.

Read the full story.

Key facts

7:40 a.m.: Here’s what to know Thursday morning:

▪ The death toll is 18, including two children. The number of missing is 145. The Surfside building collapsed at 1:23 a.m. June 24. The tower fell while residents slept. The side of the building that collapsed faces the beach.

▪ President Joe Biden will visit Surfside Thursday, one week after the collapse.

▪ The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a little-known sub-agency of the Department of Commerce that investigated the fall of the Twin Towers after 9/11, has been in Surfside since Sunday, and confirmed its plan to launch a full investigation with an aim of discovering what caused the Champlain Towers South building’s collapse and what changes in laws, building codes and regulations could be made to prevent another failure of that kind.

▪ It will likely be months or even years before engineers and other experts know exactly why a part of the Champlain Towers South came crashing down.