Miami condo rescue work resumes after structural concerns prompt delay

Rescue efforts have resumed at a Miami condo block that collapsed one week ago, killing at least 18 and leaving 145 more unaccounted for, more than 12 hours after the work was halted amid fears the structure would topple.

Rescue work had been stalled earlier on Thursday when workers reported hearing sounds of shifting inside the still-standing 12-storey section of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside overnight and evacuated the disaster site out of safety concerns.

“Finding missing loved ones continues to be at the forefront of our operations,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue tweeted soon after search efforts resumed.

Related: ‘Dark pit of pain’: families grieve victims lost to unimaginable in condo collapse

The halt came exactly seven days after the oceanside section of the building suddenly collapsed in the early hours of last Thursday, killing residents as they slept, and the same day Joe Biden visited to observe the rescue work and comfort families of the scores still missing.

“What amazed me about this group of people was their resilience, their absolute commitment and willingness to do whatever it took to find the answer,” the president said after the three-hour meeting with grieving relatives. “They’re going through hell, those who survived the collapse, as well as those who are missing loved ones,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Elsa formed in the Atlantic early on Thursday, with forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicting a path that could bring the cyclone towards south Florida, and potentially over the site of collapse, as soon as Tuesday.

Kevin Guthrie, the director of Florida’s department of emergency management, announced Wednesday that contingency plans were in place to evacuate the site and relocate resources as the storm approached.

The suspension of rescue activities is a blow to relatives waiting anxiously for news of loved ones believed to have been in the building when it came crashing down at about 1.30am on 24 June.

Other than short delays for thunderstorms passing overhead, and a deep-set fire in the rubble brought under control earlier this week, the dangerous search and rescue operation involving dozens of experienced workers from several countries sifting through a 30ft mound of tons of concrete rubble, has continued round the clock for a week.

Alan Cominsky, the Miami-Dade fire chief, said Thursday that motion detectors alerted workers to a movement of six to 12in in a large supporting column of the 40-year-old structure, and additional “slight movement” in concrete slabs on the south side that he said “could cause additional failure of the building”.

He told a morning press briefing that he was “optimistic” work could eventually continue, but would not give a timeline, citing the need for structural engineers to examine the site and declare it safe for a resumption.

An emotional Cominsky also gave a brief account of an episode early in the rescue effort when workers heard what they believed was a woman’s voice calling for help, but were unable to reach her.

“We did hear audible sounds ... a female voice is what we heard for several hours, and eventually we didn’t hear her voice any more,” he said.

“That’s emphasizing the magnitude of what we’re going through, the efforts [of] all our fire rescue personnel, everyone that’s here on scene, trying to do the best we can, these heroic efforts. Unfortunately, we didn’t have success.”

At a briefing late on Wednesday, authorities identified two of the known victims as 10-year-old Lucia Guara and her four-year-old sister, Emma, the first children confirmed to have perished. Their parents, Marcus Guara and his wife, Ana, were identified earlier.

“Any loss of life, especially given the devastating nature of this event, is a tragedy, but the loss of our children is a grief too great to bear,” the mayor of Miami-Dade county, Daniella Levine Cava, said.

“Our community, our nation and the world mourn with the families of those we have lost. We grieve with them and we lift them up as one community united by loss, standing together as we never have before in the very worst of times. We pray for all the families missing loved ones.”

Levine Cava also sought to allay fears that the president’s arrival on Thursday would hamper the rescue operation. “His visit will have no impact on our search & rescue mission,” she said in a tweet.

“We’re deeply grateful that our community remains a top priority for the president as he continues to provide the full support of the federal government.”

Biden signed a disaster declaration for the tragedy last week, freeing federal funds and resources. Engineers from the national institute of standards and technology (NIST), a government agency that investigated the fall of New York’s World Trade Center in the 2001 terrorist attacks, will lead a federal inquiry into the cause.

It was revealed at the weekend that a structural engineer’s report in 2018 found major defects in the condominium complex that were not addressed, and it was reported this week that the condo association sent a letter to residents in April warning that the building’s structural conditions were deteriorating, requiring $15m in assessments for repairs.

Katherine Fernandez Rundle, state attorney for Miami-Dade, said on Tuesday she would launch a grand jury investigation into the collapse.

Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who has been a frequent visitor to the site, has also promised a full and timely inquiry into the disaster. Addressing the media on Wednesday, he said he met with families at the assistance center still waiting for news of their relatives.

“While there’s an overwhelming amount of grief, there is still apprehension about not knowing for sure,” he said. “Rest assured those folks are going to be working on that pile, they’re going to get answers one way or the other.”

DeSantis said the tragedy was “heartbreaking” but that he was also inspired by the stories of those killed or missing: “You have some people that have lived remarkable lives, have tremendous families. I’ve been able to see the real raw pain and emotion that this has caused.”