SURFSIDE, Fla. – Search efforts entered an eighteenth day on Sunday as rescue workers continue searching for victims of the Surfside building collapse.
During the daily media briefing Sunday morning, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed that the death toll had risen to 90, with another 31 people who remain potentially unaccounted for.
“Our hearts and minds are always with those who we’ve lost and the families who are grieving, and those who are still waiting,” said Levine Cava.
The mayor said that rescue crews have removed more than 14 million pounds of debris and rubble from the collapse site.
Watch Sunday’s daily media briefing:
Late Sunday morning, Miami-Dade police released the identities of ten victims that had been removed from the rubble during the week.
The body of Richard Augustine, 77, was recovered Tuesday, while Luis Sadovnic, 28, and children Alexa Maria Pettengill Lopez Moreira, 9, and Anna Sophia Pettengill Lopez Moreira, 6, were recovered Wednesday.
Recovered Thursday were Maria Gabriela Camou Font, 64, Lorenzo De Olivera Leone, 5, Alfredo Leone, 48, Maria Torre, 76, and Edgar Gonzalez, 42. Julio Cesar Velasquez, 66, was recovered Friday.
A ceremony was held Saturday night to honor the Israeli Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, which departed the site after two weeks of amazing, tireless work.
Rescue workers have been operating in dangerous conditions at the site. On Friday, three workers required medical attention and another suffered a cardiac incident and had to be hospitalized.
Another concern has been the air quality. Samples taken at the site have shown that the air is hazardous, especially on top of and around what remains of the collapsed structure.
“Hazardous material technicians are constantly sampling and monitoring the air quality, and all first responders on the pile and in the surrounding area wear proper protective gear, including masks,” Levine Cava said Saturday.
It was earlier in the week on Wednesday when officials made the difficult decision to switch efforts from search and rescue to search and recovery.
In the days following the collapse, officials were quick to begin looking for other buildings in South Florida that could have similar issues, which included a condo in North Miami Beach and as of Friday, the Miami-Dade County Courthouse located downtown.
Engineers and officials have also been examining the Champlain Towers North, which was built by the same developer of the collapsed south towers and around the same time in 1981, with similar materials and design.