With Tropical Storm Elsa barreling towards Florida, crews overnight demolished the remaining structure of the partially collapsed condo building in the town of Surfside.
After a series of controlled explosions, the remaining portion of the building came crashing down Sunday night at 10:30 p.m. local time.
The blast was designed to fall away from the existing rubble to give search-and-rescue crews additional room to look for the 121 people still missing after part of the building collapsed on June 24.
Demolitions expert Dan Hoffman explained, “The gravity will pull it, everything straight down, but it will have a little tilt to it to where the material wants to stay away from the collapsed part so they can continue the recovery.”
Officials wanted to bring down the remaining structure before any impacts from Tropical Storm Elsa are felt.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “The impacts from the storm, whether it’s a strong tropical storm or a weak hurricane, will begin affecting the Florida Keys and portions of the South Florida peninsula as early as Monday… so we’re preparing for the risk of isolated tornadoes, storm surge, heavy rainfall, and flash flooding.”
Earlier Sunday, officials also searched for any pets left in the building as officials acknowledge the odds of finding human survivors are dwindling.
An Israeli search and rescue operations expert told a Miami TV station he no longer believes there are any survivors under the rubble.
One local resident complained the rescue and demolition process has been too slow.
“It shouldn’t be weeks to do something,” Surfside resident Stephen Sanderson said. “You’ve got to cut red tape right away. And it shouldn’t have taken the storm because we have our rescue workers there and it was shifting.”
Fourth of July Fireworks in Miami Beach were canceled this weekend, as the area instead honored the victims and first responders.
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