Surfside Recovery Efforts To End As Land Preps For Sale

Miami FL

22 July, 2021

11:45 AM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report Jul 20, 2021 Efforts to recover the dead from the debris of Surfside's condo collapse are nearing an end as the catastrophe continues to raise alarm and focused scrutiny on other older residential buildings. Two high-rises in Miami-Dade County have been evacuated over structural concerns, and last Thursday residents were evacuated after a partial roof collapse at the three-story Lake View Garden Condominium off NW 68th Avenue and NW 179th Street. No one was injured. Helicopter footage from WSVN showed that a long section of roof overhang had fallen off one side of the complex to the ground below. The roof didn't appear to have collapsed into any units. Fire rescue spokesperson Erika Benitez confirmed that the damage was limited to the building's exterior. On the site of the high-rise collapse, Miami-Dade police identified six more victims, meaning that 92 of the 97 confirmed dead have been identified. County officials have accounted for at least 240 people connected to the building, with just a few still classified as missing, or "potentially unaccounted for." A county statement late last week said the task of identifying victims had become increasingly difficult, relying heavily on the medical examiner's office and expert technical and scientific work. More than 26 million pounds of debris and concrete have been removed as recovery work continues. A judge approved the sale of the oceanfront property last week with proceeds intended to benefit victims of the deadly disaster. At a hearing, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman ordered that the process begin to sell the site of Champlain Towers South, which could fetch $100 million to $110 million, according to court records. The judge also approved returning $2.4 million in deposits that some Champlain condo owners had made toward an assessment to pay for $15 million in planned major repairs. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.