Gov. DeSantis holds news conference after building collapse (LIVE) | USA Today

Families waited to hear news about missing loved ones Thursday morning as rescue efforts continued after a 12-story oceanside condo collapsed into a heap of rubble, leaving residents trapped and at least one person dead.

About 70 people crammed into a room with chairs and blue gym mats on the floor at a reunification site set up by the American Red Cross. Family members and building residents listened to police give updates in anxious silence. Young children slept in blankets. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett confirmed at least one person had died.

Pablo Rodriguez, a 40-year-old Miami native, said his 64-year-old mother and 88-year-old grandmother lived in the wing that collapsed.

Rodriguez told USA TODAY that he last spoke to his mom Wednesday to discuss the family weekend plans – the grandmother and great-grandmother were going to pick up Rodriguez’s 6-year-old son and spend the weekend together. Next month would have been his grandmother’s 89th birthday. Rodriguez had plans to surprise her with brunch at a nice restaurant.

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21 comments

    1. You’re just throwing that political BS out there before you even know whether it was a bomb or other type of terror attack, hunh? You must be a real blast at parties, Jennifer.

  1. Likely because the HOA manager embezzled money and never did the repairs the residents paid for. or he hired a contractor from NY who did a second rate job and he got his palm greased in the process. True story, this is how most HOA’s in FL operate. HOA’s are the problem.

  2. Maybe time to invest in infrastructure? Oh wait, this is Florida state… where regulations and climate change don’t exist. Never mind.

  3. A building built to withstand hurricanes surely doesn’t collapse like that. Something significant must have caused it. So, unless it was a bomb, or the bldg had had flawed engineering and/or materials, but its hard to process ‘cause I thought this only happened in 3rd world countries.

    1. This has happened a lot in this country and in other first world countries. Corruption and corner cutting is a global plague.

  4. 45 year old building shouldn’t fail like this. Maybe foundation or corrosion but had anyone noticed buildings issues before collapse? Wonder if any other FL building share whatever flaws are identified? Got to feel for families of the dead and injured.

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