Law enforcement in Surfside, Fla., is using DNA samples from family members to help identify the victims recovered from the rubble. "It's very emotional," police official Alfredo Ramirez III says.
"The concrete deterioration is accelerating," the Champlain Towers South's condo board president wrote as she asked for a $15 million special assessment for major structural repairs.
As one of the largest U.S. rescue operations in recent memory continues, those who escaped the tower or lost loved ones want to know how the 12-story structure could have failed so suddenly.
An engineering report in Oct. 2018 warned of "major structural damage" in the Florida building that collapsed last week. The next month, a town inspector said the building was in "very good shape."
The 2018 report found major damage to the concrete structural slab below the pool deck and warned that extensive repairs would be needed soon. The mayor is considering evacuating a sister building.
"The people that got out are never gonna go back and live in that building, of course. And so some of them have lost everything that they had," said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Rescue teams search for any survivors within the sudden mountain of debris. "That's not an old building," said Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett. "That kind of thing should not be happening."
As of Friday morning, 159 people remain unaccounted for as rescue crews work at the scene. The suit says the condo association failed to "secure and safeguard" the owners' lives and property.
"We will continue search and rescue because we still have hope that we will find people alive," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. The number of fatalities has risen to four.
The mammals were removed from the endangered species list in 2017, but algae blooms and overdevelopment have killed 46,000 acres of seagrass, leaving manatees without enough to eat.
