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Authorities have identified four more people killed in last week’s collapse of a condo building in Florida — with 152 still unaccounted for.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at an evening press briefing at the scene Sunday that the death toll remains at nine, and said 132 occupants of the building have now been accounted for but 152 remain unaccounted for.
Cava said officials are not releasing the names of the newly identified victims of the collapse and said it will be up to their families to do so.
“We’re working to notify those next of kin first, and it is up to them after to the public and the media,” she said of the newly identified victims.
Rescue teams from as far away as Israel continue to sift through the rubble, but hopes of finding survivors are nonetheless dwindling.
The building collapsed around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, burying more than 150 people.
But Cava said she was “overwhelmed” by the support from around the world — more than $1 million in donations have come in since the horrifying incident.
“I continue to be overwhelmed with the very generous, moving outpouring of support from local cities, people, and around the country and the world,” she said.
“Those people have continued donating to our support Surfside fund,” she added. “We now have raised over $1.2 million. This is incredible.”
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said at the briefing that some of the money will help residents of the adjoining Champlain Towers North to relocate until that building is declared structurally sound.
He said two occupants of that building were being moved to a local Marriott on Sunday.
“We just need a few more miracles each day and start pulling people out of that rubble and reuniting them with their families,” Burkett said.
An October 2018 report flagged structural deficiencies in the building, and the condo association later funded a $15 million renovation and repair project for the building, which had recently begun with roof work, according to reports.