Biden Offers More Federal Support in Surfside Search and Rescue

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden comforted grieving families and offered enhanced federal support to the recovery from the collapse of a condominium tower in Surfside, Florida, one of the the deadliest U.S. disasters of his presidency.

“I think there’s more that we can do,” Biden said Thursday during a meeting with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and other public officials. The president said the U.S. could possibly pay for all of the rescue efforts.

The president also met with first responders searching for survivors in the rubble of the collapsed building. Search and rescue efforts were paused Thursday morning over concerns about the stability of the remaining structure, highlighting the dangers facing the responders.

“I just wanted to come down and say thanks,” Biden told a group of about 50 uniformed personnel. “What you’re doing now is hard as hell.”

Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to south Florida one week after a 12-story building in Surfside crumbled to the ground, leaving at least 18 people dead and 145 missing. Search and rescue teams from across the country have combed the wreckage for survivors but thus far, none have been found since the immediate aftermath of the collapse.

DeSantis, a Republican who is said to be considering a presidential run in 2024, thanked Biden for the federal response to the disaster, saying “you recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one.”

Biden touted the bipartisan cooperation involved in the response efforts. “You know what’s good about this? The way you’re cooperating,” he said, touching DeSantis’s hand. “We’re letting the nation know we can cooperate.”

The president urged Florida officials to ask the federal government for whatever assistance they need in the weeks and months ahead.

“There’s going to be a lot of pain and anxiety and suffering and even the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow,” Biden said. “So, we’re not going anywhere.”

Six more bodies were found in the ruins Wednesday, according to local officials. Among the dead were two children ages 4 and 10.

Federal assistance already provided to the rescue and recovery effort includes 60 Federal Emergency Management Agency staff and 400 additional personnel spread across five urban search and rescue teams to assist with the efforts at the request of local officials, according to White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Biden met privately with families of the dead and missing to offer comfort and condolences, the White House said.

For years, Biden has used his own personal grief to empathize with those suffering tragedies. The president’s first wife and daughter died in a car crash in the 1970s and he lost his son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

While speaking with the first responders, Biden recalled how firefighters used the jaws of life to save his two sons from the auto wreck and also when he was rushed to the hospital in 1988 with a life-threatening brain aneurysm.

“You saved my life,” Biden told the group.

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