James Olthoff, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said he has established a National Construction Safety Team to investigate the collapse.
“This will a fact-finding, not fault-finding technical investigation, he said Wednesday evening. “It will take time. Possibly a couple of years. But we will not stop until we have determined the likely cause of this tragedy.”
Hilda Noriega, the 92-year-old woman who was among more than a dozen victims of the structural collapse, was “jovial” and was always “concerned about others,” said Father Juan Sosa from St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Noriega was a frequent parishioner of the church, Sosa told Fox News.
“She came to the 12:30 p.m. mass every Sunday,” he said. “She was always concerned about having masses celebrated for other people that needed prayers.”
Noriega lived on the sixth floor of the 12-story Champlain Towers South building.
Her son, Carlos Noriega, is the police chief of nearby North Bay Village. In a statement released Wednesday, the family called her a “matriarch” and its “heart and soul.”
Sosa said there was rumor that she was found with her rosary beads.
“It’s possible because a lot of people do that,” he said. “They say the rosary before they go to sleep and sometimes they keep it with them.”
Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said a team of Mexican search and rescue workers were allowed to come to the collapse site.
He said they initially said they would be at the site Wednesday morning but did not show up.
"They're allowed to come," Cominsky said. "I was instructed that they were going to come here at 10 a.m. but they never did."
Several of the volunteers who flew to Florida to help had been barred from the site because of U.S. restrictions. The team, "Topos Azteca," is a non-profit that has assisted in search and rescue operations around the world.
{{#rendered}}Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said the city was in the process of collecting every document related to the collapse and uploading them online.
Residents living in the property to the north of the collapse site have expressed concerns about the safety of their building, he said. The city has hired an engineer who worked at on the Pentagon after 9/11 and a bridge that recently collapse in Miami.
"He’s poring over the plans for the building and is expressing concerns about those plans in that they may not be complete,” Burkett said.
The city is arranging for alternative housing for anyone in the building who is concerns with the integrity of the structure.
The National Hurricane Center has issued advisories on a potential tropical cyclone five in the Atlantic Ocean.
Rescue workers have dealt with period of rain amid search efforts. Oficials said plans have been developed if the storm becaomes a threat.
The bodies of two children -- ages 4 and 10, were found Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters during an evening news conference.
"Any loss of life, especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event is a tragedy, but the loss of our children is too great to bear," she said.
She said 145 people now remain missing.
{{#rendered}}An urban search and rescue team from Ohio was activated Wednesday to assist local authorities in Surfside.
The Ohio Task Force 1, which is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will send roughly 80 members and several canine search teams, task force spokesman Phil Sinewe told Fox News.
As of Wednesday morning, 16 bodies have been recovered and 147 people remain missing from the Champlain Towers South collapse. Sinewe did not know how long the team would be in Florida.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the Surfside families he has spoken with are “desperate for answers.”
“The rescuers are burning through gloves, boots & tools & are under tremendous physical & increasingly emotional strain,” he tweeted Wednesday. “And everyone is bracing for the excruciating hours yet to come.”
Officials are expected to give an update on search and rescue efforts at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming announced Wednesday a $250,000 donation to the Support Surfside Fund to help those impacted by the Champlain Towers South collapse.
“This is a terrible tragedy and our hearts go out to the many people affected by it,” said Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman, Marcellus Osceola Jr. “The Seminole Tribe pledges to marshal our resources and do everything we can to help.”
The organizations, both owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, said they will also launch a public fundraising campaign at their restaurants, hotels and retail venues.
{{#rendered}}White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will thank first responders and search and rescue workers during their Thursday trip to Florida following the deadly collapse of a condo tower in Surfside.
“They will also meet with families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy,” she told reporters Wednesday.
No specifics were provided.
The visit is being coordinated with officials on the ground to ensure it does not divert local resources from the search-and-rescue operations, Psaki said.
Miami Heat power forward Udonis Haslem visited the site where a condo tower partially collapsed last week.
He put a wreath at the memorial wall for the victims and offered his support for rescue workers and families waiting for news on their loved ones. “
It’s emotional for me,” he said, the Sun-Sentinel reported. “It’s hard to fight back the feeling.”
Haslem, a Miami native and captain for the Heat, has spent the past several summers involved in various community initiatives.
“For me, being a part of Miami and staying in Miami was never about basketball. It’s always bigger than basketball for me,” he said. “And this breaks my heart.”
Florida Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said he plans to ask President Biden "for the best PSTD support possible" for the responders working in conditions that "resemble more of a war-zone than a normal search and rescue mission."
"We’ve already deployed mental health experts to engage these heroes, but having access to the nation’s best mental health experts and guidance would go a long way in helping these officials cope with some of the horrible things they are having to see and deal with," he said in a tweet Wednesday.
{{#rendered}}Leo Soto, whose high school friend Nicole Langesfeld is missing, along with her husband Luis Sadovnic, adjusts pictures at the makeshift memorial he began to the scores of people who were left missing after the Champlain Towers South condo building partially collapsed nearly a week ago, on Wednesday, in Surfside, Fla.
A crushed car is towed away from the Champlain Towers South condo building, where scores of people remain missing almost a week after it partially collapsed.
Hilda Noriega, the mother of nearby North Bay Village Police Chief Carlos Noriega, has been confirmed to have died in the Champlain Towers South condo building collapse.
"The Noreiga family was notified last evening of the recovery and positive identification of his mother from the Champlain Towers South catastrophic scene," the family said in a statement early Wednesday.
"The Noreigas have lost the 'heart and soul' and 'matriarch' of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for," the statement added.
{{#rendered}}“We have now recovered four additional victims. The number of deceased is at 16,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters Wednesday, adding that 147 people still remain unaccounted for in the wake of the collapse.
“Please join me in continuing to pray for those who lost their lives in this unthinkable tragedy and all of their families who are grieving and all of those who are still waiting and waiting and waiting for news,” she said.
"Our teams have worked through the night, as they have every night, to make headway through the rubble," Cava added. "The world is watching."
Florida officials are holding a press conference about the search and rescue effort at the Champlain Towers South condo building collapse site.
Fire officials say four more bodies have been found in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building, bringing the death toll to 16, the Associated Press is reporting.
Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah broke the news to family members at a briefing this morning, saying the bodies were found last night.
The victims' next of kin have not yet been notified, the Associated Press adds, while also suggesting the death toll could rise further as Jadallah revealed that other human remains were found as well.
{{#rendered}}Luba Rosebach, a Champlain Towers East resident, tells Fox News that the collapse situation is “very unstable for everybody who lives on the coastline.”
“We would like to have more research done, we would like to have more answers to our questions whether it is safe for our children and future.”
Click here to watch her interview with Neil Cavuto on ‘Your World’.
Nicholas Altman, the 23-year-old son of Surfside victim Michael Altman, is describing his father as a “very loving guy” who was “always smiling.”
Nicholas told the Miami Herald that Michael, 50, lived in Champlain Towers South for six years and the condo has been in the family since the 1980s. He worked as an accountant and held dual citizenship of the U.S. and Costa Rica.
“He was a warm man. He conquered a lot of obstacles in his life, and always came out on top,” Nicholas said to the newspaper. “He always inspired my brother and I to be successful in life.”
Click here to read more.
Search and rescue workers are seen this morning sifting through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo building.
{{#rendered}}Harry Rosenberg, a New York City widower who lost his wife to cancer and parents to coronavirus within months of each other, is among the nearly 150 that remain missing this morning in the wake of the condo collapse.
He had moved to Champlain Towers South to get a fresh start on life, his friend told the Associated Press.
"He told me, ‘It is the next chapter of my life.’ He went through hell. His parents passed away. His wife passed away," Steve Eisenberg said.
Rosenberg’s daughter and son-in-law were visiting him at the time of the collapse and are missing as well, the AP is reporting.
Click here to read more.
Tributes are pouring in for Marcus Guara, a 52-year-old who was identified Monday as one of the victims of the Champlain Towers South building collapse.
“He was a great brother, uncle, cousin, son, and loved his daughters passionately,” his cousin, Peter Milián, told the Miami Herald. “He loved life.”
Guara spent his childhood racing BMX bikes before studying business at the University of Miami and becoming captain of its rowing team, the newspaper says. At the time of the collapse, he was working as a regional sales manager for Kassatex, a bed and bath textile company.
His wife Anaely Rodriguez, 42, and his two daughters – ages 4 and 11 – are among those still unaccounted for, according to the Miami Herald.
Click here to read more.
The state prosecutor in Miami-Dade has announced that she will ask a grand jury to investigate the building collapse in Surfside, Fla.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement the grand jury probe into the Champlain Towers Condominium will "look at what steps we can take to safeguard our residents without jeopardizing any scientific, public safety, or potential criminal investigations."
"Few words can describe the shock and horror that the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium building has evoked in all of us," she said.
Click here to read more.
{{#rendered}}As the search for survivors in the Surfside condo building collapse enters its seventh day, two storm systems in the Atlantic have a chance of becoming tropical storm systems over the next few days – but it's not yet clear whether they would impact the U.S., the National Hurricane Center says.
Bad weather has already caused delays in the search efforts.
Click here to read more.
Kevin Guthrie of the Florida Division of Emergency Management said Tuesday night that the possibility that severe weather in the coming days has prompted state officials to ask the federal government for an additional team to help with search and rescue efforts in Surfside, Florida.
“There are two areas of (possible storm) development out in the Atlantic, heading to the Caribbean. We have eight urban rescue teams in Florida. We talked about doing a relief," Guthrie said at a news conference. “We have all the resources we need but we’re going to bring in another team. We want to rotate those out so we can get more resources out.”
At least 900 workers from 50 federal, state and local agencies were assisting with search and rescue efforts, Charles Cyrille of the Miami-Dade County Office of Emergency said.
Cyrille noted they were "working seamlessly" on the search.
{{#rendered}}Raysa Rodriguez says she was asleep inside the Champlain Towers condo building in Surfside, Florida, when it started to collapse last Thursday morning.
"Something work me up, and I found myself in the middle of the room," she writes in a newly filed lawsuit against the condo association that ran the property. "The building swayed like a sheet of paper."
Details about the lawsuit filed by Rodriguez on Monday were reported Tuesday by Miami-based FOX station WSVN-TV.
Rodriguez’s lawyer, Adam Moskowitz, says his client had been raising "red flags" about the safety conditions of the building "for months," sending complaints and photos of cracks and other damage to the building association.
Click here to read more on Fox News.
Coverage for this event has ended.