President Biden is scheduled to meet with victims’ families today in Surfside and show his support for the first responders and crews working around the clock in hopes of finding survivors.
Those crews, using their hands, buckets and small tools, are continuing the painstaking work of digging through 12 floors’ worth of rubble that was once the Champlain Towers South Condominium.
“I’m very pained to tell you,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Danielle Levine Cava on Wednesday, “that we found two additional bodies in the rubble, which brings our total count to 18. Eighteen fatalities.”
That makes the number of unaccounted for 145.
President Biden has offered federal aid and says he supports a federal probe into the collapse– words also echoed by Mayor Cava.
The mayor called this a tragedy no one will ever forget moving forward.
“We have so many things to learn from this, and of course here in Miami-Dade county, I’ve initiated a thorough review of all of the buildings and recertification process. Obviously when we’re talking about people’s lives, nothing can be spared.”
As crews at the collapse site await the president’s arrival, he is making a priority out of not negatively affecting their work. White house officials say they are making sure that all of the added security does not slow down the search-and-rescue mission.
