SURFSIDE, Fla. — Toys pulled from the rubble of the Surfside condo collapse by fire rescue crews now serve as part of a growing memorial for the tragedy.
Leo Soto told 12News, the CBS affiliate in West Palm, that he started the memorial wall after the building fell. He said he saw first responders digging through the debris and pulling out toys.
The memorial also includes photos and letters to those who were killed and those still missing, according to 12News.
As of Monday evening, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine said 11 people were confirmed dead and 150 were still unaccounted for. The search for those missing stretched into a sixth-day Tuesday.
Rescuers are using bucket brigades and heavy machinery as they work atop a precarious mound of pulverized concrete, twisted steel and the remnants of dozens of households. The efforts include firefighters, search dogs and experts using radar and sonar devices.
Authorities said it's still a search-and-rescue operation, but no one has been found alive since hours after the collapse on Thursday.
The pancake collapse of the building has caused frustrating efforts to reach anyone who may have survived due to layer upon layer of intertwined debris.
“Every time there’s an action, there’s a reaction,” Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said during a news conference Monday. “It’s not an issue of we could just attach a couple of cords to a concrete boulder and lift it and call it a day.” Some of the concrete pieces are smaller, the size of basketballs or baseballs.
Authorities insisted they are not losing hope.
Deciding to transition from search-and-rescue work to a recovery operation is agonizing, said Dr. Joseph A. Barbera, a professor at George Washington University. That decision is fraught with considerations, he said, that only those on the ground can make.
Barbera coauthored a study examining disasters where some people survived under rubble for prolonged periods of time. He has also advised teams on where to look for potential survivors and when to conclude “that the probability of continued survival is very, very small.”
“It’s an incredibly difficult decision, and I’ve never had to make that decision,” Barbera said.
The building collapsed just days before a deadline for condo owners to start making steep payments toward more than $9 million in repairs that had been recommended nearly three years earlier, in a report that warned of “major structural damage.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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