"That was a very difficult night . At approximately 1:20 a.m. on June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story, 136-unit condo building at 8777 Collins Ave., Surfside . A woman who survived the collapse of a condo building in Florida has shared how she escaped. I thought, oh, tomorrow on the news, we're going to hear about, you know, tremors in Florida. , even as police and forensic specialists continue working to identify human remains. Albert Aguero and his family had asimilarclose call. "It's just sad. Direktor noted that he hadn't been warned of any structural issues with the building or about the land it was built on. All content Copyright 2000 - 2023 WSVN-TV. ", She made her way to a nearby stairwell and tried to exit on the pool deck, but the door was jammed. "We are working with the Consulates of various countries in the Western Hemisphere to help secure travel visas for family members who need to travel to the U.S.," Rubio wrote in a post on his official Twitter account on Thursday evening. It wasn't until they opened the door to the hallway that they realized what had actually happened. All my friends were giving me luggage and clothes and things. 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. Its about the lives that are there.. 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The action authorizes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in Miami-Dade County," according to a statement from the White House. "The chandeliers and the pendant lights [were] just swaying completely, and that was not normal. This is a 1 in 10,000 year earthquake that hits Florida.. And a warning, this is a harrowing conversation but an important one. And - so I went around the corner, and that's when I saw that the building was missing. I think that it was a progressive evolution, and every hour that went by, we continued to add resources.. By Wilson Wong. Sara picked up Gabe on her way home and they all arrived back at the building just before 1 a.m., he said. With her dog in her arms, she had to climb through rubble and over cars to escape. or redistributed. Heavy machinery is used to remove a support column as search and rescue personnel work atop the rubble at the Champlain Towers South condo building on Friday. Rosenthal is not the only survivor who has shared their story. The official also told ABC News it's been difficult to determine how many people were in the collapsed section of the building, partly due to the fact that there isn't an on-scene management company that keeps track. The final missing person in the condominium building collapse in Surfside, Florida has been recovered and identified, according to the Miami-Dade County mayor. A total of 98 people died when the building partially collapsed on June 24, 2021. "Some of them dont have insurance, and theyve lost everything they worked all their lives for. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. These Valuable Pennies Are Worth Thousands, Mysterious Cases of Men Found Dead After Leaving NYC Gay Bars Ruled Homicides: ME. "My initial reaction is wow, we were so lucky. We talked aboutitand we say it's about 15 feet that we survived by, if we had been 15 feet to the right, it would have gone down, or half of the apartment would have gone down," Aguero said. And it's just overwhelming, really.". About six months ago, the Nir family moved to Surfside, Florida. Those are our neighbors. That's when the family started hearing loud noises. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Where are you staying right now? Eyal was out of town that fateful night. Coco, a black and white tuxedo cat, was left behind after her 89-year-old owner was pulled to safety from her fourth floor apartment. He thought the ordeal could not be real, but he said he knew it was real when dust fell on his face and saw more of it out of his window. About four hours later, he checked his phone and found out what had happened to his home and neighbors. I was standing right here, De Moura said just outside of her home. Without hesitation, I did exactly what she told me. "Good Morning America's" TJ Holmes asked them what the collapse sounded like. The Miami-Dade Police Department is leading an investigation into the incident. "We were screaming 'Help! And again, I'm staying in the area. Copyright 2021 NPR. He and his wife got the kids from their beds and ran for their lives. Praying that the building didnt fall on me, collapse on me. Yes. (CNN) After several weeks of searching and waiting for news on victims from the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, all 242 people have been accounted for. Have a news tip? . However, NPR has been able to confirm that the meeting did take place in 2018. At least 34 lawsuits have been filed by families of victims since the collapse, accusing building officials, the condo board and others of ignoring structural defects. Rest of collapsed Miami tower brought down with explosives; 121 still missing. SURFSIDE As many as nine of the 98 victims who died in the worst building collapse in modern U.S. history might have survived the initial cave-in, a USA Today investigation suggests . About three dozen people were able to escape from the portion of the building that remained standing. Miami condo owners warned of major structural damage in 2018. I ran to the balcony. Updated on: July 14, 2021 / 9:25 PM Nicholas Balboa said he had been walking his dog past midnight on June 24 when he felt the ground shake and saw that a major section of the condo complex had collapsed. Officials said Thursday they're making plans for the likely demolition of all parts of the building that didn't collapse. Jeff Pias, 60, was staying with his . Thanks for contacting us. A survivor of the Florida condo collapse said she had to climb through the rubble in the dark with her dog until they found light. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. He ran to his apartment to drop off his dog, and when he returned to the wreckage, he heard screaming under the rubble. "We are finding our way out until we get to some light.". Ninety-six bodies were recovered from the Champlain Towers South collapse site in Surfside, Florida, while one other victim who died at a hospital brings the official death toll to 97. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in Miami-Dade County "to provide assistance for the families impacted by the Surfside tragedy," according to the order issued Thursday evening. She then went down to the garage to discover it was flooded with water upto her ankles. In May:DeSantis signs condo reform bill a response to Surfside building collapse into law. An aerial view showing a partially collapsed building in Surfside near Miami Beach, Fla., June 24, 2021. As the search for survivors enters its fifth day, those who escaped are recounting harrowing tales of survival after last week's condo collapse in Surfside.At least 10 people have been confirmed . Ryan Logan, the American Red Cross' regional disaster officer for south Florida, said the organization has been helping about 18 families, and some of them have been looking for ways they can help other victims. Still, officials had resisted abandoning the search-and-rescue effort. / CBS News. Sara and Eyal Nir have six kids and two of them, Gabe and Chani, moved into the condominium building with them. The Associated Press reported that the $1 billion settlement would come from several sources, including insurance companies, engineering companies and a luxury condominium that had recently been built next door. "Nothing's ruled out. They then descended to the garage where they encountered shin-deep water, ultimatelyescaping Alfredo with a woman frozen from shock hoisted over his shoulder through an opening in acrumbled wall. She quickly grabbed her dog and tried to evacuate, along with other residents, down the only staircase that was available. 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. An attached copy of the policy showed limits between $1 million and $2 million. Initially, 150 people were thought to be missing. Alfredo used to joke to his wife she'd have to bury him there. July 5, 2021 4 . 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. - Latest victims in condo tower collapse include 2 children Officials said Thursday that they're making plans for the likely demolition of all parts of the building that didn't collapse. Neither he nor the company, in its press release, made any mention of the 98 people who perished. All rights reserved. So Sara went to the front lobby to talk to the security guard. While the family is still dealing with the trauma of that night, Gabe said he thinks fate kept them alive. Before sprinting to the beachto safety, Aguero said thegroupcrawled up about three feet of rubble on the first floor andovercamea three-foot gapby the pool. "There's got to be a reason we came back later. As many as nine victims, or about 10% of the death toll, remained alive and buried under the mountains of debris after parts of the 12-story residential building in Surfside, a quiet neighborhood just outside of Miami Beach, caved in on June 24 around 1:25 a.m. "I walked out with my pajamas and my phone.". "I looked to my left and half of the apartment is gone, look forward and the elevator shaft is there and there's no elevator, it's just two holes," Aguero told NBC South Florida. 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. 2023 Cable News Network. Im in a dream in California. Residents of a partially-collapsed condo in Surfside, Florida, have spoken out about what they heard, felt, and saw during the disaster, as search and rescue efforts continue. What we know about the building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida. I thought it was a wonderful property because I was so happy. I could hear people crying and screaming for help, Lopez told the Herald. And the fire escape door wouldn't open, but I saw people on the other side, and I banged. Last Wednesday night, hours before the collapse, Erick De Moura was walking out of girlfriend Fernanda Figueiredos Miami Beach home to head to his condo in Champlain Towers South. "That's kind of what's hard.". There was light, but it was the eeriness of it. Sadly, no one . GARCIA-NAVARRO: And this is, of course, the middle of the night, so it's dark. I closed the balcony doors. "I looked to the left and the apartment to our left was half sheared off. Fire-rescue logs obtained by the paper showed that search dogs found signs of life in the Champlain Towers South wreckage site multiple times in the hours after the 1:25 a.m. collapse. I don't care about that. "It was like a really loud clap of thunder. What did you see? "It could have been a very different thing," Janette Aguero said, her voice wavering with emotion. And there was an older lady and they were helping us out of the rubble. And I should've gone back for her. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. During times like this, they are very good. However, Figueiredo told him to stay because they do not get spend Wednesday nights together often. A Warner Bros. GARCIA-NAVARRO: As you just heard there, Ms. Alvarez said that the residents of Champlain Towers were reassured by a representative from the town of Surfside that the building was safe. At approximately 1:20 a.m. on June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 12-story, 136-unit condo building at 8777 Collins Ave., Surfside, partially collapsed in a matter of minutes. Its a miracle. They were the nicest couple. Alfredo Lopez and his wife describe how they escaped the crumbling Champlain Towers South on June 24, 2021. He cannot help but wish, though, that a . Rodriguez helped neighbors escape to a second-floor balcony where firefighters helped them to the ground. ", Longobardi, who is a civil engineer, said they found a staircase that was completely intact and he quickly checked for cracks or other signs of damage before they used it to escape. But subsidence, or the gradual sinking of land, likely would not on its own cause a building to collapse, according to Wdowinski, whose expertise is in space geodesy, natural hazards and sea level rise. About the . They came out, and then I said, we got to get out of here. My balcony doors opened. One unit over, and I am gone, Rosenthal added. And please understand that I don't care - everything I lost in that condo, including my parents' wedding rings and my father's 18-karat gold watch from Cuba that was engraved and all that - I don't care. A jagged five-foot chunk of flooring barely left enough room to escape. I mean, the bed was shaking. Susana Alvarez is 62. This story has been shared 155,909 times. While delayed maintenance and structural complications are widely considered the cause of the collapse, manyquestions about the disasterstill remain. A Haitian man once survived for two weeks within the wreckage of a building after a . For now they are staying at a nearby hotel, the floor of their room cluttered with items donated by friends and strangers. Did anyone survive the Surfside collapse? They are. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. I couldnt tell where it was coming from.. The condo collapse in Surfside, Florida has a Loudoun County man relieving and retelling his own horror story, after he was rescued from an apartment building collapse 20 years ago. Im like, All right, Im in the middle of it. I won't leave. They were screaming, help, help. The Champlain Towers South Condo Association was preparing to start a new construction project to make updates and the condominium had been through extensive inspections, according to Kenneth Direktor, a lawyer for the association. And there were two men and a young man with us, and they were helping us. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. The Associated Press contributed to this story. 2. "It was pitch black. I left the cat behind, and I ran out. Since the collapse, Balboa said he has replayed that moment in his mind many times, wondering what he could have done differently to save more people, he told CNN. And I don't know - we just - we climbed out of rubble. Associated Press. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Emergency personnel work at the site of a partially collapsed building in Surfside near Miami Beach, Fla., June 24, 2021. TALLAHASSEE June 24 will mark one year since the tragic partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building thatclaimed the lives of 98 residentsin Surfside. Nearly 20 people were rescued from the rubble of the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Paolo Longobardi speaks about escaping the collapsed building in Surfside, Fla. on "Good Morning America," June 25, 2021. When they opened their door, they sawsky and beach where their neighbors doors had once stood. "For some reason, we all were doing things later than usual. Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela have all reported nationals who have been affected by the building collapse in Surfside, with more than a dozen still missing. Accuracy and availability may vary. That was my home. Only three survived the initial collapse. Authorities tallied a total of 98 deaths in what is one of the worst building collapses in U.S. history. (Liyah Deveaux) By KELLI KENNEDY. Nobody had been found alive since immediately after the Florida building crumbled almost two weeks ago, killing at least 54. It's unclear exactly how many residents have been displaced, but those with insurance policies should recoup at least a portion of their losses. Did Mavericks kneel during national anthem. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Susana Alvarez, thank you very much for talking with us. Legal Statement. They have been hampered by torrential rain and fires and have had to move with excruciating care. As of Thursday . The couple fled down the emergencystairwell, but couldn't open the lobby door. Balboa said he told the uncle, Sorry I couldnt get to his sister faster.. Their car was destroyed in the building's garage. De Moura lived in unit 1004. Authorities have opened a family assistance center at the Surfside recreational center for individuals unable to locate loved ones who live in the Champlain Towers South. Legal Statement. 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. It's still unclear what caused the condominium, which has withstood decades of hurricanes, to partially collapse. When you start hitting seven days, that really goes down." Survival depends on several factors - mainly access to air and water, ability to regulate body temperature, pre-existing health conditions, injuries sustained during the collapse, and mental will to live. Survivors recounted hearing signs of the collapse and attempting to escape the building early Thursday morning. But the staircase directly outside their unit was collapsing, he said, so they had to find another one. She kept telling me what to do. I had just taken all of my mother's pictures - all the pictures of our family to that condo two days before that because I was going to sort them all out. He said there was water damage to the complex, but that is common for oceanfront properties and wouldn't have caused the collapse. "I was prepared for the whole building to come down," one survivor said. ALVAREZ: I was in bed, and I heard a tremor. He followed the sound and located 15-year-old Jonah Handler, whose hand and fingers were visibly wiggling through the wreckage. Gabriel Nir narrowly escaped a first-floor apartment with his mother and 15-year-old sister. I also want you to know that that couple - that they keep saying in the news that 1001 - it's a man and his wife - that the niece was visiting them - they were the nicest people, the nicest people, were always - I'm by myself. I can only imagine how many people were in their apartments either sleeping or watching TV or just whatever, just living their lives. Condo association "kept kicking the can down the road," according to lawyer for unit owner.