Death Toll Continues To Rise As More Bodies Are Pulled From The Rubble

Crews have retrieved four more victims’ bodies from the rubble that was the Champlain Towers. That brings the official death toll to 64 with 76 people still unaccounted for. Only forty of the victims found have been identified.

Earlier this week Surfside officials called off all rescue efforts and announced they would be reorganizing the mission to focus on recovery.

“The work continues with all speed and urgency,” she said. “We are working around the clock to recover victims and to bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can.”

At midnight Wednesday, the mission shifted from a search and rescue operation to a recovery effort, meaning authorities had little hope that they could find additional survivors two weeks after the condo collapsed in the middle of the night on June 24. Many of the victims were found crushed to death in their beds.

The decision to end the rescue effort came after crews completed a search of the last area where they expected to find “voids,” or pockets of debris large enough to possibly contain survivors.

#UPDATE 68: We have identified five additional victims that sadly and unexpectedly lost their lives in the tragic Surfside building collapse. Please keep their families and loved ones in your prayers. pic.twitter.com/QbvdEfQdt2

— Miami-Dade Police (@MiamiDadePD) July 8, 2021

Authorities did search voids they hadn’t been able to access previously – but they found no one alive.

No survivors had been found since the first few hours following the abrupt partial collapse, which happened as dozens of victims were believed to have been asleep.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said it could take weeks to finish recovering victims’ remains and removing rubble from the site.

An extensive investigation into the cause of the collapse is ongoing and at least a half-dozen lawsuits have been filed in connection with the tragic incident.