Miami building collapse: Fearful relatives hunt news of missing

A devoted grandmother, a beloved teacher, the sister of Paraguay's first lady and a mother whose now distraught daughter couldn't take her call.

All are among scores unaccounted for in the Miami building collapse.

Dozens are from the large Jewish community, a similar number named by Latin American consulates.

Anxious posts go up on social media as fearful relatives and friends struggle for information, but also refuse to give up hope.

The 12-storey residential building partially collapsed early on Thursday morning. So far only four people have been confirmed dead.

This is what we know about some of the missing:

The whereabouts of Bhavna Patel, a 38-year-old British and US citizen, are unknown. She has been reported missing along with her husband, Vishal Patel, 42, and their one-year-old daughter, Aishani.

In a tweet a relative, Sarina Patel, confirmed her family members were yet to be found. Bhavna is pregnant, the tweet says.

Nicolette Brent, the UK's consul-general in Miami, visited the family reunification centre in Surfside on Thursday night. She said her team was "ready to help any British nationals who may have been involved in this tragic incident".

There are concerns for many members of the large Jewish community in the area.

On Thursday a local synagogue told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper that at least 34 of the people unaccounted for are Jewish.

Rabbi Sholom Lipskar of The Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside said several members of his congregation were missing.

"This is something that transcends our capacity for understanding," he told US broadcaster CNN. "We accept it and we have to learn, as we do in our culture, resilience and to move forward because challenges don't hold us back."

The rabbi named Nancy Kress Levin, Jay Kleinman, Frankie Kleinman, Arie Leib, Yisroel Tzvi Yosef and Tzvi Doniel as missing.

Brad Cohen, 51, was in the building with his brother-in-law at the time of the collapse.

"The hardest thing has been seeing the devastation of my 12-year-old daughter, she is very close to her father," Brad's wife, Soraya Cohen, told the BBC.

Given the area has a large Jewish community, the tragedy has drawn the attention of Israeli aid groups and government authorities, including the country's consulate in Miami.

The consulate said the Israeli government had offered search-and-rescue help or other aid to local authorities, but had yet to receive an answer.

In a statement, Paraguay's foreign ministry said six Paraguayan nationals had been registered as missing.

Among them was Sophia López Moreira, the sister of Paraguay's first lady, Silvana López Moreira.

Sophia lives with her husband, Luis Pettengill, and their three children in the building.

Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo told local media that President Mario Abdo Benítez had expressed concern for the safety of his relatives.

"Our consul and his team are making the rounds at hospitals in Miami," Mr Acevedo said.

The sixth missing Paraguayan was named as Lady Luna Villalba by the ministry.

The Paraguayans are among at least 26 Latin American nationals reported missing by their consulates.

That includes two Chileans, three Uruguayans, six Venezuelans and nine Argentines, but the number could be higher.

Three of the Argentines were identified as Andrés Galfrascoli, 45, his partner Fabián Nuñez, 55, and their daughter, Sofía Galfrascoli Núñez, six, by a local newspaper. The paper said Mr Galfrascoli is a plastic surgeon, while Mr Nuñez is a singer and theatre director.

The two missing Chileans have been named as Claudio Bonnefoy, 85, and his wife María Obias-Bonnefoy. In a tweet their nephew said the couple lived on the 10th floor of the collapsed building.

They lived in an apartment on the side of the building that collapsed, the couple's daughter, Pascale Bonnefoy, told the New York Times, a newspaper she writes for.

Magaly Ramsey received a call from her mother, Magaly Delgado, the night before the building's collapse.

"My mother called me at around 10 o'clock on Wednesday night, but I was at a conference and I couldn't answer her," Ms Ramsey told the BBC.

I'll call her tomorrow, she thought. Since then, however, she has not heard from her mother, an 80-year-old of Cuban origin.

"The most difficult thing is not having information," Ms Ramsey said.

The disappearance of one Jewish couple prompted an emotional reaction on social media.

Several people have queried the whereabouts of Myriam Caspi Notkin and Arnie Notkin, an elderly couple who lived on the third floor of the collapsed building.

Speaking to the Miami Herald newspaper, Fortuna Smukler said Mr Notkin is a beloved member of the community.

Ms Smukler said Mr Notkin taught physical education (PE) at a local primary school in South Beach for years, implanting him in the memories of many students.

"He was such a well-liked PE teacher from people's past," she said. "Everyone's been posting, 'Oh my god, he was my coach'."

"It would be a miracle if they're found alive."

Kevin Spiegel was on a business trip in California when he received a message about the building's collapse. He and his wife Judy, 66, have had an apartment on the sixth floor of the building for more than four years.

Judy's daughter, Rachel Spiegel, was last in contact with her mother on Wednesday night, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said Judy had texted her to say that she had finally found the Disney dress one of her granddaughters, four-year-old Scarlett, had asked for as a gift.

A devoted grandmother, Judy had been helping with picking up the children from school, her daughter said.

As of Friday, Judy was still missing, but her family have not given up hope.

"We're very hopeful that the community here will be able to find our loved ones," Judy's son Josh Spiegel told CNN.