Live updates: Death toll in Florida condo collapse now 78 after 14 more victims recovered
By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN, Associated Press
Live updates: Death toll in Florida condo collapse now 78 after 14 more victims recovered
Matias J. Ocner
Works make their way past the rubble and debris of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. The rubble shown here is from the front portion of the condo towers, which was demolished 11 days after the back part of the tower collapsed with people inside. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)
Matias J. Ocner
Works make their way past the rubble and debris of the Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Florida on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. The rubble shown here is from the front portion of the condo towers, which was demolished 11 days after the back part of the tower collapsed with people inside. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
Pallbearers carry the casket of Marcus Guara's daughters before a funeral service for the family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
Pallbearers carry the casket of Marcus Guara's daughters before a funeral service for the family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
Family and friends arrive for a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
Family and friends arrive for a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
Family and friends arrive for a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
Family and friends arrive for a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
MATIAS J. OCNER
Family and friends arrive for the funeral service for Marcus Guara, 52, his wife Anaely Guara, 42, and their girls, 10-year-old Lucia and 4-year-old Emma at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (Matias J. Ocner /Miami Herald via AP)
MATIAS J. OCNER
Family and friends arrive for the funeral service for Marcus Guara, 52, his wife Anaely Guara, 42, and their girls, 10-year-old Lucia and 4-year-old Emma at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (Matias J. Ocner /Miami Herald via AP)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Carl Juste
Volunteers along with locals replace dead flowers with fresh ones prior to Guara Family's burial at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
Carl Juste
Volunteers along with locals replace dead flowers with fresh ones prior to Guara Family's burial at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
Priests bless a casket following a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
Priests bless a casket following a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
A woman leaves a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
A woman leaves a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
People hug as they leave a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
People hug as they leave a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Lynne Sladky
Pallbearers wheel a casket before a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Lynne Sladky
Pallbearers wheel a casket before a funeral service for Marcus Guara and his family at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Miami Beach, Fla. Guara, his wife Anaely, and daughters Lucia and Emma, died in the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building in nearby Surfside. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
Sisters in Florida condo collapse, age 4 and 10, buried in same coffin
Carl Juste
A memorial for the Guara family is posted on a fence near the Champlain Towers South Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Surfside, Fla. Officials overseeing the search at the site of the Florida condominium collapse seem increasingly somber about the prospects for finding anyone alive. They said Tuesday that crews have detected no new signs of life in the rubble nearly two weeks after the disaster struck at the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
Carl Juste
A memorial for the Guara family is posted on a fence near the Champlain Towers South Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Surfside, Fla. Officials overseeing the search at the site of the Florida condominium collapse seem increasingly somber about the prospects for finding anyone alive. They said Tuesday that crews have detected no new signs of life in the rubble nearly two weeks after the disaster struck at the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside. (Carl Juste/Miami Herald via AP)
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — The death toll in the collapse of a Miami-area condo building rose to 78 on Friday, a number the mayor called “heartbreaking” as recovery workers toiled for a 16th day to find victims in the rubble. Another 62 people remain unaccounted for.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the work to recover victims was still continuing with all urgency.
“This is a staggering and heartbreaking number that affects all of us very deeply,” Levine Cava said of the new death toll.
On Thursday, Paraguay’s foreign minister said in a radio report that the body of the sister of that country’s first lady was among those found. Several Latin American citizens were reported in the building when it collapsed. Rescue workers now focused on finding remains instead of survivors have pledged to keep up their search for victims until they clear all the debris at the site.
MORE DEVELOPMENTS:
The painstaking search for survivors shifted to a recovery effort at midnight Wednesday after authorities said they had come to the agonizing conclusion that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside.
Hope of finding survivors was briefly rekindled after workers demolished the remainder of the building, allowing access to new areas of debris. Some voids where survivors could have been trapped did exist, mostly in the basement and the parking garage, but no one was found alive. Instead, teams recovered more than a dozen additional victims.
No one has been pulled out alive since the first hours after the 12-story building fell on June 24.
State and local officials have pledged financial assistance to families of the victims, as well as to residents of the building who survived but lost all their possessions. Meanwhile, authorities are launching a grand jury investigation into the collapse. And at least six lawsuits have been filed by families.
