(ALTOONA, Iowa) — A boy is dead and another child is in critical condition after a raft overturned on a water ride at an amusement park.
The accident occurred at 7:35 p.m. local time on Saturday at Adventureland Park in Altoona, Iowa, when a boat on the Raging River ride overturned with six riders on it, according to a statement from the amusement park.
Three of the passengers were rushed to hospitals in critical condition while a fourth passenger suffered minor injuries, the Altoona Police Department said in a statement.
Eleven-year-old Michael Jaramillo died on Sunday as a result of his injuries, police said. Another juvenile was still in critical condition as of Monday afternoon, according to the police.
“Altoona Fire and Police were on the property and responded immediately,” Adventureland Park in its initial statement on Saturday night. “We want to thank them as well as Des Moines, Ankeny, Bondurant, Pleasant Hill and Delaware Township Emergency Services for their fast response … Our thoughts are with the affected families at this time.”
Adventureland Park said the ride had been inspected the day before and “was found to be in good working order” at the time of the accident. The Raging River ride will remain closed for more inspection.
The park released a second statement on Sunday night about the death of an injured rider.
“Adventureland is saddened to learn of the passing of one Guest involved in the Raging River accident on the evening of 7/3/21,” the statement said. “This investigation is ongoing and the ride remains closed. Adventureland is working closely with both the State and local authorities, and would like to thank them again for their efforts. At this time, we ask for your thoughts and prayers for the Guest and their family, as well as for our team members who were onsite.”
This is reportedly not the first fatal accident to have taken place in connection with the Raging River ride at Adventureland Park.
According to the Des Moines Register, 68-year-old Adventureland Park employee Steve Booher died in 2016 while working on the ride. He was helping riders get out of the rafts at the end of the ride and fell onto the conveyor belt, suffering a fractured skull along with a major brain injury, the paper reported. Booher died four days later.
Iowa’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration subsequently fined the theme park $4,500, according to the Des Moines Register — the maximum the agency could assess for that type of violation.
An investigation into Saturday’s incident is ongoing and the ride will remain closed during that time.
Filmmaker Richard Donner has died at 91 years old, ABC News has confirmed.
Donner, whose 1978 Superman: The Motion Picture starring Christopher Reeve, remains the gold standard for the Man of Steel in cinema, also directed ’80s classics like The Goonies and the ’90s holiday staple Scrooged, and produced movies including The Lost Boys and the original X-Men film for 20th Century Fox with his wife Lauren Shuler Donner.
The 1987 buddy cop film Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, became nearly synonymous with the Bronx, New York-born director. The film spawned three sequels — and was on track for a fourth, which was in development before his death.
Born Richard Donald Schwartzberg, Donner got his start both on and behind the stage, before transitioning to TV, where he directed series from The Twilight Zone and The Fugitive to Gilligan’s Island.
Donner’s first big feature success was the 1976 thriller The Omen, which led to the coveted Superman directing gig. The filmmaker’s treatment of the character — and Reeves’ powerful, yet never cynical portrayal of the hero and his alter-ego Clark Kent — remains a high water mark for the genre and the character.
Donner returned for 1981’s Superman II, but parted ways with the studio before it was completed. In 2006, the “Donner Cut” of the film was released onto DVD, to critical and fan acclaim.
Donner’s death was mourned by friends and former colleagues including Steven Spielberg, Glover, and Gibson, Variety reports.
Spielberg remembered Donner as your “favorite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and — of course — the greatest Goonie of all.” He added, “He was all kid. All heart. All the time. I can’t believe he’s gone, but his husky, hearty laugh will stay with me always.”
For his part, Gibson commented, “Donner! My friend, my mentor. Oh, the things I learned from him! He undercut his own talent and greatness with a huge chunk of humility, referring to himself as ‘merely a traffic cop.’ He left his ego at the door and required that of others.”
Gibson added, “If we piled up all the good deeds he did, it would stretch to some uncharted place in the firmament. I will sorely miss him, with all his mischievous wit and wisdom.”
For his part, Glover said, “My heart is broken.”
The actor added, “Working with Dick Donner, Mel Gibson and the Lethal Weapon team was one of the proudest moments of my career. I will forever be grateful to him for that.”
(NEW YORK) — A mishap involving fireworks on the Fourth of July took the life of Columbus Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks, investigators said.
First responders in Oakland County, Michigan, rushed to the scene of the incident Sunday night where they found the 24-year-old injured, the Blue Jackets said in a statement. Kivlenieks succumbed to his injuries soon after help arrived, the team said.
Although an early statement from the Blue Jackets said initial information showed Kivlenieks suffered a head injury, a representative from the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office told ABC News that Kivlenieks’ cause of death was “chest trauma” from a fireworks mortar blast. The manner of death was ruled accidental, according to the medical examiner.
The investigation is ongoing, according to the police.
The Latvia native signed with the team in May 2017. Kivlenieks made his NHL debut at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 19, 2020, stopping 31 of 32 shots in a victory against the New York Rangers.
The Blue Jackets left a couple of hockey sticks outside the Nationwide Arena in Columbus on Monday afternoon as a tribute to Kivlenieks.
His teammates shared their condolences on social media throughout the day.
Blue Jackets center Nathan Gerbe tweeted a photo of his kids playing on the ice with Kivlenieks.
“Words are hard to find right now, but the day we put the same jersey on meant that we would be family forever. When my kids play Kivi ‘the kid’ in goal it will have a greater meaning!!” Gerbe wrote.
John Davidson, the Blue Jackets’ president of hockey operations, gave his condolences to Kivlenieks’ family.
“Kivi was an outstanding young man who greeted every day and everyone with a smile, and the impact he had during his four years with our organization will not be forgotten,” Davidson said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — Pope Francis is recovering after undergoing a planned surgical operation for diverticular stenosis, which is an intestinal procedure on the colon.
“His Holiness Pope Francis is in good general condition, alert and breathing on his own,” said a statement released by the Holy See Press Office on Monday.
The surgery lasted about three hours and involved a hemicolectomy — which is the removal of part of the colon, the statement said. The Holy See also said Monday he is expected to stay at the hospital for about a week barring any complications.
The surgery was done on the evening of July 4 after the Pope was hospitalized Sunday afternoon at the Policlinico A. Gemelli hospital in Rome, according to a previous statement.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is praying for the current pope’s recovery, the retired pope’s secretary said Monday on Italian TV channel Mediaset.
Earlier Sunday, Pope Francis announced that he will visit Slovakia in September after a brief stop in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
It will be the Pope’s second trip outside Italy this year after trips planned in 2020 were cancelled due to COVID-19.
(LOS ANGELES) — A quick-moving brush fire in Southern California has prompted evacuations for those living along Interstate 5.
The Tumbleweed Fire sparked shortly before 2 p.m. near Gorman, California, about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
By 8 p.m., the fire had exploded to nearly 1,000 acres along the I-5 corridor. It is currently only 10% contained.
The fire was fueled by high winds, gusting between 18 and 25 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Evacuations were ordered near the Hungry Valley Recreation Area, and two firefighters suffered minor injuries in the blaze, according to the fire department.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed in the fire.
A decades-long mega-drought and scorching temperatures driven by climate change have created tinderbox conditions for wildfires on the West Coast.
The exact cause of the fire is unknown.
Another brush fire that sparked nearby on Sunday, the Dulce Fire near Agua Dulce, about 45 miles north of Los Angeles, was 100% contained at 12 acres.
At least three other fires sparked elsewhere in the state Sunday, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
(NEW YORK) — While some tech companies, such as Twitter and DropBox, have said that employees may work remotely forever, many companies are planning a partial or full return to the office this summer or fall.
For other workforces, that transition is already in swing. Among adults who are employed at least part-time, 61% say they currently work from a location outside their home, 19% are exclusively remote and 21% work partially from home and partially from another location, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey published in June.
For those making the switch from fully remote to in-person or hybrid work, the key to a successful re-entry is staying true to the spirit of the word “transition,” experts say.
“What transition really means is that we need to ease into it,” said Dr. Victor Carrión, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. “There’s going to be this impetus to completely return back to normal, but the reality is that life is different now,” he said. “We not only want to be resilient, but we want to be adaptive.”
Instead, workers and bosses should approach the transition period as a different animal than either working from home or pre-pandemic office work. It’s a chance incorporate the best parts of each and synthesize them into a better model of work, as well as process trauma from the pandemic that led to remote work in the first place. Workforces that skip the synthesis and processing steps may do so at their peril.
“There’s a human impulse right now to suppress and move on and return to normality,” said Ezra Bookman, a New York-based ritual designer who consults for companies and communities. “I think that that’s part of the energy that we’re receiving from leadership. That’s the very American way of dealing with trauma: suppress and move on.”
One tool for processing that trauma and creating a tangible transition back to the office could be creating a ritual around it, Bookman explained, but cautioned against a topdown approach that doesn’t engage with why employees might be hesitant to return to work in the first place. Rituals aren’t likely to have much effect if leaders aren’t modeling vulnerability, treating workers as individuals and engaging with their concerns. “I think that what leadership does in this moment is going to be super, super important,” he said. “No ritual is going to magically change the imbalance of power and the fact that employers are not listening to their employees,” he said.
With all that in mind, there are practical steps workers and bosses can take to make the process easier for everyone, as well as a guide to creating a personal or collective back-to-office ritual.
Step 1: Go slow
“People who jump too fast may find themselves feeling exhausted very quickly,” Carrión warned. He recommended gradual re-entry as opposed to heading back to the office five, or even three days a week.
“If your goal is to be in the office four days a week and you’re unsure about the delta variant and only feel good going one day a week, go one day a week,” he said. “Once you’ve dealt with that, you can work toward your goal.” During that transition period, self-care is equally as important as it was during the height of the pandemic. Get a good night’s sleep. Eat well. Exercise. Avoid leaning on alcohol or drugs as coping mechanisms. Remember that everyone had different pandemic experiences and it’s okay to go at your own pace.
“It’s going to be different for different people,” Carrión said.
Step: 2: Acknowledge the pandemic
Part of returning to the office should include reflecting on why we left in the first place, experts say. Holding a moment of silence for those who died of COVID-19 is one potential place to start. Depending on the size of your organization that moment of silence could be with the whole company or just with your team. Bookman suggested pausing and reflecting for 3.9 minutes, in honor of the 3.9 million people who have died worldwide from the virus.
“That gives people permission to say we’ve acknowledged, we’ve made space, we’ve recognized the loss of life,” Bookman said.
Step 3: Create a ritual
Acknowledging COVID as a group is a good springboard for a ritual Bookman calls a “litany of losses.”
Either as group, or individually, people can write down everything they’ve lost over the past year. It can be helpful to read that list aloud or have someone witness it, Bookman said, but you could also do this exercise alone.
“Write down every single thing that you’ve lost and then hold onto that paper until you don’t want it anymore. Until you’re ready to let go.” Then Bookman recommends getting rid of the paper in an intentional and symbolic way. You could burn it, bury it, put it out to sea or use any other method that speaks to you and isn’t part of your regular routine. “Something more than putting it in the recycling bin,” Bookman advised. “It doesn’t mean that the all those things magically go away and suddenly you’re fine with it, but it does give you a different point in your psychological map.”
Carrión recommended a different twist on a litany of losses: writing down your experiences over the past year to incorporate them into your memory and build a personal narrative around them. “If we don’t, some experiences may not be processed and they may continue to be in our brain, nagging us and getting in the way of our functioning,” he said.
“It is very important as we transition we don’t forget the year that has passed.”
Tips for managers and team leaders: One size does not fit all
Making Carrión and Bookman’s advice a reality requires a flexible and empathetic employer, they both acknowledged.
“People feel very differently about returning to work, and they’re all occupying the same space again,” Bookman explained. Some may have had the best year of their lives and spent more time with their kids, he noted. Others, who lost family members or friends or had their marriages fall apart, are still grieving. Still others may have been totally isolated and crave socialization.
Carrión seemed to agree.
“I think managers need to be very sensitive about the differences between individuals. They can not think that there is one solution or formula for everyone,” Carrión said. “They may have to tailor approaches to different individuals and create environments in the workplace that are supportive and promote coping and self-care.”
As for employees, if you can do so safely, speak up about your concerns and needs. “I really want to encourage people to not be chill,” Bookman said. “This moment to be direct, to be brave. Chances are everyone else in the room is feeling similarly and will feel relieved that someone is stepping up to advocate for a smarter, healthier, more real, honest and authentic return to work.”
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — Search and rescue teams have recovered three additional bodies in the pile of rubble from a collapsed building in Surfside, Florida, following the demolition of the remaining building, according to officials.
First responders were able to search in areas previously inaccessible due to the instability of the portion of Champlain Towers South that still stood following the partial collapse on June 24, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told reporters at a press conference Monday morning.
The death toll now stands at 27, with 118 still unaccounted for, Levine Cava said. The newly accessible areas were likely where a lot of the master bedrooms were located, where people were sleeping, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters.
While the demolition was critical to expanding the search for bodies closer to the standing building, it was also necessary as Tropical Storm Elsa approached the U.S. with winds that “could have brought it down in a matter that could not have been as controlled or predicted,” the mayor said.
The demolition went “exactly as planned,” and the building fell away from the pile that collapsed, Levine Cava said.
“Only dust landed on the existing part,” she said.
Crews received the “all-clear” about an hour after the demolition started around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, and first responders resumed the search by 1 a.m.
Levine Cava emphasized that search and rescue crews “took every action we possibly could” to search for pets that remained in the building prior to the demolition. Multiple full sweeps of the building, which included searches in hiding places such as closets and under beds, were conducted “at great risk to first responders,” the mayor said.
In areas of the building that were not accessible, ladders were used to place live animal traps on balconies, and doorways were opened to give pets the means to escape if they were able to, Levine Cava said. Drones with thermal imaging were also used.
“We went to truly great lengths to take every step that we could,” she said.
Levine Cava described the decision to collapse the entire apartment building as “devastating,” acknowledging the “great tragedy” for the surviving residents of the building, in addition to those who lost loved ones.
“To lose your home and all your belongings in this manner is a great loss as well,” she said.
Officials said it was too dangerous for survivors to enter the building to retrieve their belongings, DeSantis said.
“Obviously it wasn’t worth that risk,” he said. “We can not lose any more people.”
FEMA has been successful in signing families up for assistance, and the city has raised millions of dollars from donations around the world to assist survivors as well, Levine Cava said.
Although the forecast for Tropical Storm Elsa has the center of the storm on the west coast of Florida, there will still be intermittent heavy rain and localized flooding as well as strong gusty winds and the possibility of tornadoes in the region, which could still affect search efforts, said Robert Molleda, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service South Florida.
(NEW YORK) — While COVID-19’s surge has ebbed, violence is on the rise across the United States.
There has been a rash of gun violence in what President Joe Biden called an “epidemic,” including several public mass shootings, increases in incidents in major metropolitan areas and an uptick in road rage clashes.
While dramatic declines in levels of coronavirus have engendered new hope and optimism for some, the effects of the pandemic and the measures taken to combat it linger, simmering tensions brought to a boil and manifesting themselves in anger, and in some cases, violence, experts say.
Federal authorities saw that swell in violence spurred on by COVID’s hardships coming — before the pandemic even got into full swing.
An internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by ABC News from spring of 2020 warned that the emotional, mental and financial strain exacerbated by the new coronavirus pandemic combined with social isolation — especially if prolonged — may “increase the vulnerability of some citizens to mobilize to violence.”
“The outbreak of Covid-19, and government’s response to it, have intensified concerns that could accelerate mobilization to violence with extended periods of social distancing,” the memo reads, noting such isolation is a “known risk factor” in inciting violent extremism, along with “financial stress and work disruptions, including unexpected unemployment and layoffs” also “increasing.”
Even as the nation and globe was locking down, the memo, which has not been previously reported, urged agency partners to develop an “action plan” for when communities begin to return to “normal” activities, predicting “the increase in mass gatherings, combined with the lengthy social isolation and other life stressors,” may create environs churned up by COVID, and ripe for violent upheaval.
When reached by ABC News regarding these early warnings, DHS declined comment.
As a tentative reopening got underway in May, DHS Secretary Mayorkas established the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, and a domestic terrorism branch in the Department’s Office of Intelligence & Analysis, aimed at shoring up the Department’s “whole-of-society approach” to thwarting extremisim and other targeted violent acts in the U.S.
Attorney General Merick Garland announced a ‘renewed commitmen’t and multi-pronged Justice Department effort to reduce violent crime through community engagement, targeted enforcement, and interagency collaboration.
Violent crime has “spiked since the start of the pandemic over a year ago,” President Biden said in late June, announcing a range of actions and federal support towards targeting gun violence.
“And as we emerge from this pandemic with the country opening back up again, the traditional summer spike may even be more pronounced than it usually would be,” Biden said.
Pandemic a ‘tipping point’
It wasn’t just federal officials sounding the alarm last year. Doctors — including psychologists — say the pressure of the pandemic may be exacerbating acts of violence and aggression.
“COVID has been a tipping point,” Dr. Aimee Harris-Newon a clinical psychologist in Chicago who focuses on wellness and preventive care. “On top of too much chronic stress, the impact of all this trauma… now everything is starting to leak out.”
And some experts say psychological stressors were already mounting prior to the pandemic.
“We were already in a weakened condition when the pandemic hit — class divisions, overt racism, partisanship, a really poor social support infrastructure — so if you think about the effect of the pandemic on an ‘epidemic’ of shootings — it’s like the immune system of the United States was already suppressed,” Jeffrey Butts, director of the research and evaluation center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told ABC News.
“The social, psychological and economic distress in our country has surpassed people’s ability to cope, and there hasn’t been enough support,” added Dr. Marni Chanoff, a psychiatrist and founder of the integrative wellness group at McLean Hospital. “There is no road map on how to navigate this time.”
‘COVID turned up the volume’
When Mohammed Abdelmagied heard loud bangs near his Times Square kebab and hot dog stand the last Sunday in June, he thought it was firecrackers — someone celebrating an early Fourth of July, or maybe freedom from COVID-19.
It wasn’t: it was gunfire: something he never expected in the area where he’s worked for 13 years — a heavily policed place where shootings have been relatively rare.
“I turn my face to the square, I heard everything but I didn’t see nothing,” Abdelmagied, 46, told ABC News.
Two shootings in two months at the Crossroads of the World have brought a flood of police to the area, in a city that until recently had become a model of safety in major metropolitan areas. These flares of gunfire aren’t only in New York, nor have they remained only within city limits across the country.
Major U.S. cities have been rocked by spates of gun violence over the past few months, part of an already rising trend which did not stop during lockdown, but has become more visible as the country reopens.
“Shortly after a resumption of ‘normal’ life,” the memo from spring of 2020 says, tensions already brewing, then exacerbated during the pandemic, may provide an opportune moment for violent extremism, and violent attacks.
Not including suicides, more than 19,400 people died by gun violence in 2020, up from roughly 15,440 in 2019, and far past the rates in years prior, according to Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group.
In 2021, there have already been more than 10,000 gun violence deaths — with nearly six months left to go.
“Covid turned up the volume,” and has fomented a disintegration of social connections and norms, Butts said.
“Then we see some of these horrible shootings — the actual magnitude of the increase is undeniable,” Butts added.
It’s not just gun violence on the rise: acts of aggression on airplanes have also hit new highs — and not only more flight disruptions, but more violent ones as well.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a record number of potential violations of federal law in unruly passenger cases — identifying more than 490 cases this year so far where passengers potentially broke the law by “interfering with the duties of a crew member.” That’s more than double the amount of cases investigated in 2020; and more than two and a half times the amount in 2019.
Airlines have now reported more than 3,200 reports of disruptive passengers to the FAA this year; the vast majority — more than 2,400 — involve people who refused to wear a mask.
In a Homeland Security Threat Assessment released in October 2020, authorities also underscored concerns arising from COVID-19’s impact, where “anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists could be motivated to conduct attacks in response to perceived infringement of liberties and government overreach as all levels of government seek to limit the spread of the coronavirus that has caused a worldwide pandemic.”
Isolation effect
While social media helped maintain personal connections during quarantine, it can also be quite alienating, experts say — and present an opportunity for online radicalization.
In addition, pandemic job loss can be both heavy financial and psychological burdens.
And the unprecedented loss of life and loved ones to the virus, with more than 600,000 deaths in the U.S. alone, has taken an unspeakable toll, experts say.
Isolating factors like these can increase the risk of engaging — or attempting to engage — in violent extremism, according to the DHS memo.
“These risks are likely to become more widespread as public health measures are expanded — or the timeframe for maintaining social distancing increases,” the memo warned, underscoring the research-backed “need to build social links and bridges to prevent social isolation, which in turn, reduces the risk of radicalization to violence.”
Social distancing has been key to stopping the virus’ spread — but after more than a year of being fearful of anyone near potentially being infected, experts point out that self-preservation may have amplified feelings of mistrust in our communities.
“Someone who’s coming towards you on the sidewalk, and you’d think, you’re spraying your droplets at me!” Butts said. “People were afraid. More so than before, we had to see other people as a potential deadly threat.”
Americans are also still reeling from the economic and emotional blow dealt by COVID-19, despite the ebb of infection, and signs of improvement in the labor market, according to Pew polling this spring; those most vulnerable to the virus have also borne the brunt of its financial fallout.
Breaking the cycle
Tensions boiling over across the U.S. have fed what’s becoming a vicious cycle difficult to break; experts worry, that residual anxiety and collective trauma may outlast the pandemic itself.
“That kind of mental and emotional wear and tear doesn’t go away,” Butts continued. “All the harm that results will be festering for some time. That’s a huge concern.”
As some Americans’ anger about the state of the nation abates from where it was during the summer 2020 COVID surge — experts urge vigilance about what that receding rage might leave in its wake.
Even as the nation prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July and some measure of freedom from COVID, federal authorities are raising concerns about the possibility of domestic terror and violence, including mass shootings, as the 2021 summer season gets into full swing.
Whatever the new normal might be, Chanoff notes getting there will take time.
“The human spirit is resilient and the human capacity to heal is enormous,” Chanoff said. “But without support, I think that these things will likely continue to rise.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton have officially tied the knot, People confirms.
The two reportedly got hitched at Blake’s ranch in Oklahoma on Saturday, after they were spotted applying for a marriage license earlier in the week.
Page Six posted photos of what appears to be the wedding festivities taking place at a chapel built on the sprawling estate.
Earlier this month, Gwen shared snaps from her bridal shower on Instagram. “I got kidnapped by family to celebrate that I’m getting married!” she said in a post on her Instagram Story. She captioned another post, “Feeling loved, feeling blessed.”
Gwen and Blake got engaged last October after dating for five years. They first met on the set of The Voice, where they both served as coaches. Their relationship began in the wake of Gwen’s split from rocker husband Gavin Rossdale and Blake’s very public divorce from another country superstar, Miranda Lambert.
Since announcing their relationship, the two have released a handful of high-powered duets, including a Christmas song for a holiday album of Gwen’s as well as two hit country singles, “Nobody but You” and “Happy Anywhere.”
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The remains of the partially collapsed condo building in Surfside, Florida, were demolished at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday night.
Earlier Sunday, police had urged citizens who live within the designated shelter-in-place area, between 86th Street and 89th Street and Abbott Avenue and the shoreline, to remain indoors “effective immediately,” warning about dust from the demolition.
Some residents and animal welfare advocates had expressed concerned about the fate of pets left behind in the partially collapsed tower and the demolishing of the structure. But there are no animals remaning in the building, mayor of Miami-Dade County Daniella Levine Cava said during a news conference Sunday evening.
“As an animal lover and a pet owner myself my entire life, I have made it a priority since day one to do absolutely everything possible to search for any animals that may still in the building. And in the days since the collapse, the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Team has conducted three full sweeps of the place, including searching in closets, under beds, and all the other places that they could to see an animal that might have been in hiding … The latest information we have is that there are no animals, remaining in the building,” Levine Cava said.
The mayor also advised residents of nearby buildings to “close your windows, put your air conditioning on recirculation” in the case of dust of other fallout from the demolition. However, she said: “It is not expected anything other than some light debris would potentially affect all those buildings.”
Mayor of Surfside, Charles Burkett, called Tropical Storm Elsa predicted to hit the area, a “blessing in disguise ” because it inititated the discussion to demolish the remaining part of the building.
“That discussion has accomplished several things. It’s eliminated a looming threat, a dangerous threat for our rescue workers. It will potentially open up probably a third of the pile so we can all, you know, so the teams can focus not just on two thirds of the pile, but on the whole thing, which is important. And, you know, we want to make sure that we control which way the building falls and not, not a hurricane,” Burkett said.
Miami-Dade Fire Chief, Alan Cominsky said that once the building comes down, “there’ll be several different features that we’ll have to address obviously with the demolition and that’ll be the priority and securing the scene in that sense.” Afterward, the rescue mission will continiue, Cominsky said.
The partial collapse occurred around 1:15 a.m. on June 24 at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach.
Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah. Since then, hundreds of first responders have been carefully combing through debris in hopes of finding survivors.
As of Sunday, the death toll has risen to 24 people. Rescuers were still searching for 121 people as of Sunday afternoon.
A letter from the board of directors of Champlain Towers East, obtained by ABC News, told residents on Sunday that they didn’t know when the other building would come down but “the most common estimate is sometime early evening today.”
The board advised residents to evacuate as soon as possible to avoid traffic.
Levine Cava said other residents nearby wouldn’t need to evacuate but were urged to stay indoors, close their windows and turn off their air conditioners to keep out dust from the demolition.
She said the demolition will be in the form of an “energetic felling,” which “uses small, strategically placed detonations and relies on the force of gravity to bring the building down in place, right on this footprint.”
Search and rescue teams will continue with their operations, “very shortly after the demolition,” Levine Cava added.
The mayor also noted that the all of the crews are working to get as much work done before Tropical Storm Elsa arrives.
Preparations are now being made for Elsa, which weakened from a hurricane in the morning and is expected to come near southern Florida on Monday, into Tuesday. A cover has been placed on the part of the debris field that is closest to the building, Cava said.
On Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for several counties in anticipation of Elsa. Heat, humidity, heavy rain, strong winds and lightning storms also have made the conditions difficult for rescuers, periodically forcing them to pause their round-the-clock efforts in recent days.
On Friday, two more bodies were found in the wreckage as crews search the area of the collapse, officials said. Two more bodies were recovered overnight, officials announced Saturday.
Two bodies were discovered Thursday evening, including that of a 7-year-old daughter of a Miami firefighter, according to Levine Cava. The firefighter was not part of the crew that discovered the girl’s body.
“It goes without saying that every night since this last Wednesday has been immensely difficult,” Levine Cava said during a press briefing in Surfside on Friday morning. “But last night was uniquely different. It was truly different and more difficult for our first responders.”
Meanwhile, 191 people who were living or staying in the condominium at the time of the disaster have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “continue to change.”
The number of those accounted for has gone up as detectives continue to audit the list of people reported missing, a development that Levine Cava called “very good news.”
However, no survivors have been discovered in the rubble of the building since the morning it partially collapsed, and the hope that more people would be found alive appeared to be fading Friday.
Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said rescue workers are “emotional” after the discovery of a first responder’s own daughter, which “takes a toll.” But he said that won’t stop them from continuing to search for those who are still missing.
“I just was hoping that we would have some survivors,” Cominsky said at a press briefing on Friday morning.
Speaking on the signing the emergency order to demolish the remainder of the building earlier this week, Levine Cava said the move will “help us move quickly.”
The structure was cleared by crews last week, and all search and rescue resources have since been shifted to focusing on the pile of rubble. But the two sites are side-by-side and the remaining building has posed challenges for the rescuers trying to locate any survivors or human remains in the wreckage.
“Given our ongoing safety concerns about the integrity of the building, we’re continuing to restrict access to the collapse zone,” Levine Cava said during a press briefing in Surfside on Thursday evening.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden traveled to Surfside on Thursday to meet with officials, first responders, search and rescue teams, as well as families of the victims. Recalling the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife and 1-year-old daughter as well as badly injuring his two sons, the president told reporters: “It’s bad enough to lose somebody but the hard part, the really hard part, is to not know whether they’ll survive or not.”
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation.
Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
A structural field survey report from October 2018, which was among hundreds of pages of public documents released by the town of Surfside late Sunday, said the waterproofing below the condominium’s pool deck and entrance drive was failing and causing “major structural damage to the concrete structural slab below these areas.”
A slew of lawsuits against the Champlain Towers South Condo Association have already been filed on behalf of survivors and victims, alleging the partial collapse could have been avoided and that the association knew or should have known about the structural damage. A spokesperson for the association told ABC News they cannot comment on pending litigation but that their “focus remains on caring for our friends and neighbors during this difficult time.”
The association’s board released a statement Friday saying its surviving members “have concluded that, in the best interest of all concerned parties, an independent Receiver should be appointed to oversee the legal and claims process.”
“We know that answers will take time as part of a comprehensive investigation,” the statement continued, “and we will continue to work with city, state, local, and federal officials in their rescue efforts, and to understand the causes of this tragedy.”
In the wake of the Surfside building collapse, the city of North Miami Beach ordered that another condominium close immediately amid safety concerns connected to the 40-year recertification process, officials said.
The Crestview Towers Condominium is “structurally and electrically unsafe,” based on the review of a recertification report submitted Friday, city officials said in a statement.
“The city of North Miami Beach has taken the steps that we recommended to review to make sure that the recertification process was being done in a timely basis. And as I understand it, as a result of that audit, they found a building that had not been recertified, and when the information came in, they took some steps,” Levine Cava said Friday evening.
Some 300 residents have to evacuate, according to ABC Miami affiliate WPLG, while a full structural assessment is conducted.
