The Miami-Dade Police Department is leading an investigation into the incident. Accuracy and availability may vary. ALVAREZ: I was only thinking of myself. Come get us!'" 1401 79th Street Causeway 'Like it had been hit by a missile': Residents who survived the collapse describe being inside. Search and Rescue personnel work at a partial collapse building . "Some of them dont have insurance, and theyve lost everything they worked all their lives for. I mean, did you have any idea that the building was unsound? Miami Condo Collapse: Why Search for Survivors Is so Slow - Newsweek Rest of collapsed Miami tower brought down with explosives; 121 still missing. Legal Statement. Everything I owned was in that apartment, but I don't care. 'We Were So Lucky': Family Narrowly Survived Surfside Condo Collapse She convinced him to have a beer at the dining room table. Schechter, whose home is in a part of the building that is still standing, said she was asleep when she began hearing noises that were followed by shaking and rumbling. The announcement came after search and rescue operations were paused for hours because of growing signs the structure was dangerously unstable. We climbed out of rubble. "We said, 'We have to run, don't take anything,'" Longobardi recalled during an interview Friday on "GMA" with ABC News' T.J. Holmes. An engineer apparently warned the building's condo association of major structural damage back in 2018. The uncle of a 15-year-old who survived the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida, two weeks ago called the man who found the teenager in the rubble to thank him. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. When Rosenthal opened his front door, he saw his hallway had been blocked by debris from the collapse. It's not like her, and it's not like me, and when I woke up at 5:30, I understood why." And that, to me, is the worst thing, and that's all I want back. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. And I don't know - we just - we climbed out of rubble. Balboa flagged a police officer and other rescuers, who helped pull the teenager out to safety. Jason Delgado is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network-Florida. Legal Statement. A high-rise condo building in Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed on June 24, leaving at least 95 people dead, with as many as 14 potentially still missing Tuesday afternoon. I'm very, very emotional. I mean, I know that sounds silly, but that's all I want, my cat back. The Associated Press contributed to this story. He said there was water damage to the complex, but that is common for oceanfront properties and wouldn't have caused the collapse. He said his mom liked the unit on the ground floor better and chose that one a decision that, six months later, played a role in their survival. Now she has moved in with family members and assumes what's left of the building will be torn down with no chance to recover belongings. I go as near as I can. Far more people have not been as fortunate; 32 people have been confirmed dead, and 113 remain unaccounted for as teams urgently search through the rubble for signs of life, officials said Tuesday. ALVAREZ: Not to that extent. During times like this, they are very good. When he opened the . Anyone with family members from the condominium who are either safe or still missing is urged to call 305-614-1819 to account for them. Emergency personnel work at the site of a partially collapsed building in Surfside near Miami Beach, Fla., June 24, 2021. 2023 www.tallahassee.com. And then we - I don't know where I came out to, but there were cars that were all, you know, with rocks and stuff on them, crashed. And their daughter was staying there. Surfside condo collapse: What we know one year later - Tallahassee Democrat WOMAN TRAPPED IN CONDO RUBBLE PLEADED WITH RESCUERS TO SAVE HER. The cause of the collapse is still being investigated, but evidence soon emerged of a history of maintenance and structural concerns at the building, which was just beginning a multimillion-dollar repair project. An attached copy of the policy showed limits between $1 million and $2 million. "Nothing like this has ever been seen, at least not in the 40 years I've been doing this," Direktor told ABC News. They chose to live in Champlain Towers South. The National Institute of Standards and Technology,the main federal agency conducting the probe, has said it expects the investigation to take at least two years, as every piece of evidence must be thoroughly analyzed, and all hypotheses evaluated,according to its latest statement. Unnerving footage from INSIDE Miami condo in seconds before building I ran to the balcony. "We cannot say what is the reason for that from the satellite images but we can say there was movement here.". And we sat there with the town of Surfside. It's not known if those factors played a role in the collapse. From the man who hugged me when I went out there to that beach, and I was all alone out there - and I have no idea who he was - to the security guard in the building next door - the luxury building next door who came out and grabbed me and said, you're coming with me. And I - my apartment is in the front of the building, and it's right across the elevators. She then went down to the garage to discover it was flooded with water upto her ankles. And the stairs were all full of rubble. 00:49. Surfside condo collapse victim Luis Pettengill played college tennis at Indianas Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 2007. At a news conference Monday, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that the final missing persons family had been notified following the identification of the individuals remains, formally ending the search. I could hear people crying and screaming for help, Lopez told the Herald. Florida condo collapse: What witnesses say they saw | CNN Neither he nor the company, in its press release, made any mention of the 98 people who perished. The structural engineer has been around for a while. Paolo Longobardi speaks about escaping the collapsed building in Surfside, Fla. on "Good Morning America," June 25, 2021. ALVAREZ: It was. Still, friends and even complete strangers have been helping replace what she's lost. The NIST received $22 million in supplemental funding from Congress to complete its investigation. "Just don't know why we're here and the rest of the people aren't," Janette Aguero told ABC News. And again, I'm staying in the area. Without hesitation, I did exactly what she told me. So far, one person is confirmed dead, 11 are injured and 99 people . Your cat's name was Mia (ph), right? Man Who Survived Being Buried Under Rubble in India Reflects on Surfside is a few miles north of Miami Beach. "Its nothing short of amazing.". Still, officials had resisted abandoning the search-and-rescue effort. A woman who survived the collapse of a condo building in Florida said she escaped by climbing through the rubble in the dark with her dog. Initially, 150 people were thought to be missing. And there was water - a lot of water. Death Toll Climbs To 18 In The Surfside Condo Collapse, With 145 Missing The 12-story residential complex in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach, partially collapsed before 1:30 a.m. local time on Thursday. A "substantial number" of the condominium's residents are from overseas and "almost a third" of those reported missing are foreign citizens, according to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The couple said their 22-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter were "mere feet away" from the part of the building that collapsed. Though most who managed to flee to safety lived in parts of the building that remain standing, they have little hope of returning to reclaim clothing, computers, jewelry and sentimental possessions they left behind. From the balcony of his vacation rental in Unit 1106 right by the collapsed wing he saidhe saw a grey cloud covering the entire building. GARCIA-NAVARRO: You did the only thing you could. Over a month after a condominium complex near Miami abruptly collapsed overnight, local officials said Monday theyve identified the remains of a final missing person, sending the disasters overall death toll to 98. At least two members of the family were seriously injured in the collapse one is still missing. "People didn't want to answer they didn't know what was going on outside.". The remaining portion of the structure was demolished on July 4, and search efforts shifted into recovery mode. That was my home. Jeff Pias, 60, was staying with his . I (opened) the doors and a wall of dust hit me," she said in the filing. (Liyah Deveaux) By KELLI KENNEDY. Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift. They're working around the clock and they're using every possible tool," she added. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. "I remember screaming to my mom and my sister, 'Run, run, just run for your life,'" Gabe said, adding that he heard screaming from others and it felt like a nightmare. I was standing right here, De Moura said just outside of her home. Profiles of the 98 victims of the Surfside collapse in Florida | Miami Herald. Teen, mom survived falling several floors in condo collapse - Los appreciated. And the town of Surfside said to us that the building was not in bad shape, that the building was not in bad shape. Nine of the 98 Surfside victims may have SURVIVED the initial condo collapse: Fire rescue logs show woman was alive in rubble for TEN HOURS. The familys condo was on the ninth floor of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. They are. And it felt like the longest thunder I had ever heard in my life. 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'One Unit Over, and I'm Gone': Survivors of Surfside Building Collapse I closed the balcony doors. Schechter said as soon as she got out, all she could think about were her neighbors that might have still been inside. I thought, oh, tomorrow on the news, we're going to hear about, you know, tremors in Florida. But the staircase directly outside their unit was collapsing, he said, so they had to find another one. Those are people I say hello to. Memorial services are planned throughout the day, including a private event with family members and survivorsat the precise moment of the collapse 1:22 a.m. A public ceremony is planned later in the day. They always wanted me to go out, ride bikes with them. GARCIA-NAVARRO: And this is, of course, the middle of the night, so it's dark. Search for bodies concludes in Surfside condo collapse Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Steven Rosenthalwasasleepin a corner unit of the12-story Champlain Towers South buildingthat collapsed last Thursday when he heard the loudest thunderclap times a hundred that I ever heard in my life..