Surfside condo collapse live updates: Demolition planned for Sunday night

Sunday, officials planned to bring down the still-standing part of Surfside’s Champlain Towers South before Tropical Storm Elsa’s arrival, which looks as if it’ll happen late Monday or Tuesday. Getting things ready for that halted rescue workers efforts Saturday evening.

The June 24 collapse killed 24 people who have been identified. Over 120 remain missing.

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:

New Miami-Dade mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, in global spotlight after Surfside collapse

It was Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s seventh day delivering grim news from the Surfside operation when she took a deep breath at the cluster of microphones where she had already announced 16 deaths.

“Since our last briefing, I am very pained to tell you that we found two additional bodies in the rubble,” Levine Cava said at a media briefing aired around the world on June 30. “It is also with great sorrow — real pain — that I have to share with you that two of these were children...In the worst of times, we come together and we pray together.”

The county’s police department would follow-up with a press release including official identification of the collapse’s youngest known victim to date, Emma Guara, 4, and sister Lucia Guara, 11. The early word from Levine Cava reflected her self-assigned role in the ongoing Surfside catastrophe: the public face of an response that hasn’t found a survivor since the early hours of the collapse.

— Doug Hanks

Surfside residents make plans to leave ahead of demolition

For many Surfside residents, Sunday meant making plans to escape the impact of the evening’s scheduled demolition.

Justin Schultz, 47, lives in a typical Surfside ranch house — though his is adorned with solar panels — on the 8900 block of Abbott Avenue with his wife and young son. They moved from Miami Beach four years ago to start a family and pursue their “little slice of paradise.”

This week, their home found itself in the shadow of tragedy. By Sunday, the nightmare hadn’t ended: Schultz said he and his family were just on their way out of town in advance of the planned knock-down. He said he didn’t know when they’d return — “until things settle down,” he said.

“It’s a town of 4,000 that always felt like 40 — and now it’s the worst kind of tourist attraction,” Schultz said of Surfside. “We all knew each other — and everyone knows someone who has been affected. It’s been gut-wrenching and heart-breaking.”

It appeared some of Schultz’s neighbors had already cleared out: Knocks on the doors of multiple nearby houses went unanswered.

Chiara Mauriziano, 20, has lived in Champlain Towers South’s sister building, Champlain Towers East, since January, though her condo has been in her family for some two decades. She said authorities recommended they leave the area for the rest of the day, though she said she planned to return later that evening, as soon as the demolition ended.

Given what she’d experienced in the past week, the night out was no problem at all.

“We’re relaxed now,” she said about any concerns she had at this point. “They said our building is safe.”

— Rob Wile

Surfside residents urged to stay indoors during demolition

County authorities don’t plan evacuations in the Surfside neighborhood that surrounds the remaining structure Champlain Towers South, now set to be demolished by the end of the day.

Instead, nearby residents are being told to plan to remain inside, with the air-conditioning off and windows closed, once the demolition countdown begins.

“We encourage you to close all of the windows and the doors and all air intakes, and to cover all other openings that may allow dust to enter,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Sunday during a briefing at the county’s Emergency Operations center in Doral. The county moved its official emergency command to Doral once Levine Cava prepared countywide preparation for Tropical Storm Elsa, which is expected to bring gusty wind and rain on Monday but not a direct hit.

Levine Cava said the county doesn’t yet have a start time for the demolition, which will use explosives designed to bring down the remaining structure within the footprint of its existing walls.

Kevin Guthrie, head of emergency management for Florida, said he expects search efforts to resume “minutes” after the demolition. “Within a matter of minutes...they will be back on the scene,” he said.

— Doug Hanks

‘Keep going no matter what.’ Praying at the building’s memorial

Michael Benmeleh, from Aventura, was sitting on a sidewalk across the street from the memorial set up along a fence on Harding Avenue.

From his vantage point, you can look down 88th Street and see the wreckage of the Champlain Towers South building, and some mangled balconies on the structure that, as of Sunday afternoon, still stood.

He was reading from the Talmud, participating in Daf Yomi, which entails reading one page from the Jewish holy book each day for seven and a half years.

“Why is that significant? Obviously, the main idea is we’re learning the Talmud to give elevation to all the souls, and they need that elevation to get to heaven,” Benmeleh, 40, said. “But, what’s even more intense, is God speaks to the world through the Torah, through the Bible.”

Benmeleh on Sunday was taken aback by the passage he turned to as he sat beneath the hot sun. The topic: A collapsed building.

“It says, ‘A person upon whom a building collapsed on the Sabbath, and it’s uncertain whether he is there or not, whether he is alive or dead, whether he is Cuthite or Jew, they must clear away the rubble to rescue him,’” he said.

By reading the passage, Benmeleh said he hopes to at least send the souls of the dead to heaven, and to pray that some people may be found alive.

“And, basically the idea is, they try to go through long conversations understanding, number one, if there are no people alive on the top, do you stop searching or do you continue going all the way to the bottom,” he said. “The answer is you don’t stop, keep going no matter what it takes to save a life. God willing, with the power of the prayer and the Torah, we can elevate the souls, and you never know, maybe another miracle.”

Another person praying at the site was Joe LaCognata, chaplain for the firefighters of Florida Task Force 8 from the Ocala and Gainesville area. The team,which arrived last Sunday, hung up a shirt on the fence that they all signed, and it’s now there among the various photos, prayers, biblical passages and messages of hope placed at the site since the building collapsed June 24.

“This is overwhelming for all of us. We came here to do one small part. The number of people who are here supporting, and helping and giving, it’s amazing. I’ve never been part of something like this. It is amazing to see what takes place, but, I get to go home to my family again,” LaCognata said.

LaCognata is not a firefighter. His job is to pray and look out for the well being of the men and women who’ve been searching on top of the rubble for the past week looking for survivors and the dead.

“They’re doing alright. They know what their mission was, and they stayed focused,” he said. “They keep on task.”

— David Goodhue

Sunday night demolition planned

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Ray Jadallah said the demolition of the rest of the Champlain Towers South building will likely happen some time late Sunday night.

During a briefing he conducted with family members of the unaccounted for at 9:30 a.m., Jadallah said demolition professionals were about 80% finished drilling small holes into the foundation of the building. Once the drilling of those holes is complete, small explosive charges will be placed in them.

Jadallah said a more defined timeline for when the building would be brought down would be established after a meeting with the demolition company and other officials at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

“We’re looking at some time late tonight,” Jadallah said.

Jadallah said search and rescue operations are planned to resume within an hour after the controlled implosion, and hopefully first responders would then be able to access areas of the property they had not been able to reach up until now.

The demolition will likely start from the front of the building and the rubble is expected to fall onto Collins Avenue, Jadallah said.

— David Goodhue

Sunday morning in Surfside

The weather on the beach at Surfside was hot and sunny Sunday morning, with no sign that a tropical storm could be whipping up the wind and seas the next day.

There was also no indication that the planned demolition of the rest of the Champlain Towers South was imminent as people strolled along the beach, some stopping to take a look at the devastation left in the wake of last week’s building collapse, which is plainly visible from the shoreline.

“I’ve lived in Miami Beach for 21 years, and never could I imagine something like this could happen,” Daphne Lucero said.

She was walking with her friends Rebeca Salazal and Daniela Valido.

Lucero, 45, lives in nearby Normandy Isles, but Sunday was the first time she saw the rubble in person. She stayed away because she didn’t want to see it.

But, Salazal, who is visiting from Fort Pierce, wanted to pay her respects.

“It’s so sad. We are going to pray for the people who lost their lives and their families,” Lucero said. “I can’t believe this. I’ve worked in real estate for years, and I can’t believe this happened here.

— David Goodhue

‘The condo of the abuelas’

As with many condominium buildings in Miami Beach and Surfside, the mix of Champlain Towers South residents created a paella of cultures, ethnicities and faiths that some called “the condo of the abuelas.”

In the 40 years since it was built — named by its French-Canadian developer — it has become home to more and more Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Argentinians, Brazilians, Chileans, Paraguayans and Uruguayans.

Latin American Jews have flocked to the Champlain complex, attracted by the proximity of synagogues and kosher restaurants and leaving behind economic turmoil in some of their countries. In recent years, more young people and couples with young children have moved in, joining snowbirds, seasonal renters and transplants from New York City.

Read the full story by Linda Robertson

Media briefing moved ahead of Elsa

With Tropical Storm Elsa on the way, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s 11:30 Sunday morning briefing on the collapse has been moved to Miami-Dade County’s Emergency Operations Center, 9300 NW 41st St. in Doral.

The media sessions had been held at 85th Street and Collins Avenue, just outside the rescue effort’s command center.