On Sunday evening, the remaining portion of the Surfside condo building Champlain Towers South was demolished, reported CNN. However, search and rescue efforts to unearth other victims have resumed after the Florida building collapsed on June 24.
Within an hour of the demolition, rescue teams were given the all-clear to resume searching among the massive amounts of debris.
“It went absolutely perfectly. We are so, so grateful that we can get this building down and move on with our search efforts,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Demolition specialists bored holes and laid explosives in them Sunday afternoon in the condo building that was already structurally dangerous well before it collapsed.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett appeared on Face The Nation Sunday and made it clear that efforts were still focused on rescued instead of recovery.
“It is absolutely not a recovery effort,” Burkett said, later adding, “There is nobody in charge really talking about stopping this rescue effort. And this rescue effort, as far as I’m concerned, will go on until everybody is pulled out of that debris.”
Although Champlain Towers South has been demolished, the search and rescue effort is complicated by Tropical Storm Elsa that is actively making its way towards Florida.
“We’re preparing for the risk of isolated tornadoes, storm surge, heavy rainfall and flash flooding,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. He also noted that the state had started contingency plans for both the storm and the condo situation.
Fifteen Florida counties are marked for a state of emergency at this point, and DeSantis wanted the Champlain Towers South demolished before the tropical storm made landfall. High winds mixed with the debris could cause more danger.
The known death toll for several days was 24, but that number had risen to 28 victims as of Monday evening.
As of now, 117 individuals are unaccounted for as the search continues. The ages of the known victims thus far range from 4 to 92-years-old.
