Daily US Times: Officials overseeing the search at the site of the collapsed building in Miami, Florida, sounded increasingly somber Tuesday about the prospects for finding anyone survivors, saying they have detected no new signs of life in the rubble as the death toll climbed to 36.
Crews in blue jumpsuits and yellow helmets searched the debris for a 13th day while rain and wind from the outer bands of Hurricane Elsa complicated their rescue efforts. Video released by the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department showed rescuers lugging power saws and pickaxes through piles of concrete rubble barbed with snapped steel rebar. In the vides, other rescuer could be seen digging with gloved hands through pulverized concrete and dumping shovels of debris into large buckets.
Rescuers continued to look for open spaces in the collapsed building where trapped people might be found alive nearly two weeks after the disaster struck at the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.
At a news conference, Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said: “We’re actively searching as aggressively as we can. Unfortunately, we are not seeing anything positive. The key things — void spaces, living spaces — we’re not seeing anything like that.”
On Tuesday, reporters got their closest look at the site, though it was limited to the portion of the building that demolition workers tore down Sunday after the initial collapse left it standing but dangerously unstable.
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