Miami officials are reportedly considering demolishing the remainder of the 12-story condo tower that collapsed — as the painstaking search for victims enters its ninth day.
The rescue-and-recovery effort was paused early Thursday for fear that a section of the Champlain Towers South still standing might topple onto search crews.
The operation was restarted about 15 hours later when it was deemed safe, though with a new set of precautionary measures in place, Miami-Dade County Fire and Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said.
Under the new search plan, teams would confine their work for now to just three of nine grids demarcated in the ruins, he said.
Town Mayor Charles Burkett told NBC News that officials were now considering demolishing the remaining condo tower.
“If the existing building is a problem, then we need to eliminate that problem quickly,” he told White House correspondent Geoff Bennett on Thursday.
Burkett also said he was concerned about the impact of expected tropical storms and possible hurricanes on gutted structure’s integrity.
“If the [remaining] building is going to fall, we should make sure it falls the right way,” he said.
As of Friday, the death toll from the horrific collapse stood at 18, with 145 people still unaccounted for.
However, some officials have expressed hope that someone may still be found alive in the rubble of the high-rise in Surfside as the rescue team continues to search for voids.
Elad Edri, the deputy commander of the Israeli search-and-rescue team, told the Miami Herald: “We tell it to the families: that we still hope, based on the lessons of the past — that it can be done.”
Pete Gomez, a retired assistant Miami fire chief, said that if there are survivors, they’ll likely be found in voids. — explaining that when a building collapses, some of the debris could end up against a fridge, a piece of furniture or other item, creating an open space.
Gomez, who ran the city’s emergency operations center for six years and is now the senior director of Florida International University’s Academy for International Disaster Preparedness, told the Herald that trapped people could survive in such voids if they have enough air with no toxic gases or fumes in the area.
But the collapsed Champlain South Towers building ended up “pancaked,” a situation that makes it more unlikely to find voids, Gomez said.
As crews begin “peeling back layers,” they’ll put mini cameras in cracks to help them locate possible voids, he said.
“If they see a person that’s alive in one of these voids, they’re going to try to do everything within their power” to get him or her out, Gomez said, adding that it’s a “very meticulous process.”
Authorities are eager to make as much progress as possible before the expected arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa, which was on track to begin lashing South Florida with high winds and heavy rain by late Sunday, Reuters reported.