Miami-Dade County mayor says all 98 victims of Surfside building collapse have been identified
The final victim in the Champlain Towers North collapse has been identified, officials said on Monday.
A total of 242 people have been accounted for since the apartment complex fell 33 days ago.
The collapse is one of the deadliest structural building disasters in US history.
More than one month after the Champlain Towers South apartment complex in Surfside, Florida, collapsed and killed 98 people, the final victim has been identified, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
Of the 98 who died, 97 bodies were recovered from the rubble. One person died in the hospital, Levine Cava said at a Monday press conference.
"It really means the world to be able to have closure for all of those who were seeking their loved ones," Levine Cava said.
The brother of Estelle Hedaya, 54, a resident on the sixth floor and the final missing victim, told The New York Times police contacted his family on Monday to say her remains had been found.
A total of 242 people have been accounted for since the apartment complex fell 33 days ago.
Local rescue crews officially concluded their search efforts on Friday afternoon. Members of two rescue task forces worked 12-hour days since the June 24 collapse, searching through the debris first for survivors, and then for bodies and remains.
"For the past 33 days they have searched the rubble as though they were searching for one of their own," she said.
The collapse is one of the deadliest structural building disasters in United States history and the largest nonhurricane emergency response event in Florida's history.
"This tragedy at Surfside will be something that lives with all of us forever," Levine Cava said.
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