"The building is literally pancaked,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. "That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive."
Hours after the collapse, searchers were trying to reach a trapped child whose parents were believed to be dead.
In another case, rescuers saved a mother and child, but the woman’s leg had to be amputated to remove her from the rubble, Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, told the Miami Herald.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she got a call from President Joe Biden, who promised to provide any federal aid that was requested.
"We’ll be there," he said at the White House.
Hotels already had opened to some displaced residents, the mayor said, and deliveries of food, medicine and more were being hastily arranged.
Rescue officials tried to determine how many people might be missing and asked residents to check in with them.
About half of the building’s roughly 130 units were affected, the mayor told a news conference.
Rescuers pulled at least 35 people from the wreckage by mid-morning, and heavy equipment was being brought in to help stabilize the structure to give them more access, Raide Jadallah of Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said.
The tower has a mix of seasonal and year-round residents, and while the building keeps a log of guests, it does not keep track of when owners are in residence, Burkett said.
Nicholas Fernandez spent hours after the collapse trying to call two friends who were staying in the building with their young daughter.
It was Reported that a total of 22 South Americans were missing in the collapse — nine from Argentina, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela and three from Uruguay, according to officials in those countries.
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