A total of 36 people have been found in a collapsed residential building in Surfside, Florida, so far, 26 of whom have been identified, officials said on Tuesday.
Official casualties rose as rescuers found four more corpses in the rubble, said Miami-Deida Mayor Daniella Levaina Kava.
109 people are still missing. Authorities have confirmed that 70 of them were in the building at the time of its collapse.
Levaina Kava said that the search for debris is hampered by the tropical storm “Elsa” with strong winds and heavy rain. The U.S. National Hurricane Center later announced that Elsa became a hurricane again on Tuesday night and was heading to the west coast of Florida.
Built 40 years ago, the 12-story Champlain Towers South partially collapsed on June 24. Dozens of people were rescued from the ruins.
The cause of the accident is still unclear, but the authorities have released a report issued by construction consultancy Morabito in 2018, which did not say the building could collapse, but acknowledged that it needed repairs to maintain “structural integrity”.
Inspectors have warned of significant problems found in the concrete block under the pool on the ground floor, as well as cracking of the concrete in the underground car park.
“If the waterproofing is not replaced in the near future, the degree of concrete damage will expand exponentially,” the report said. It assumes that the problems are largely due to the corrosive effects of Florida’s salty air over many years.
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