Hundreds of fire and rescue workers scoured through tons of rubble early Thursday after a 12-story oceanfront residential building partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida, with at least one person dead and at least 99 were still unaccounted for, officials said.
The town has a large population of Jews, and at least two are among the missing according to officials, but local members of the community fear the number is much higher.
Rabbi Menachem Heruty, who leads a local Chabad chapter, told Israel Hayom that the city is home to "one of the largest Jewish communities in the Miami area." He added: There is a large synagogue nearby and 90% of the people in that area are Jewish, thousands. We pray for the speedy recovery of the injured."
He said that people could hear screams from residents who had been trapped by the debris. "It is my understanding that 10 were pulled out alive out of the rubble, but at least 18 Chabad members are missing, O think they are mostly adults."
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Sally Heyman, a Miami-Dade County Commissioner, said officials have been unable to make contact with 51 people who "supposedly" live in the building, home to a mix of people including families and part-time "snow birds" who spend the winter months in Florida.
"We have 51 people that were assumed to have been there, but you don't know between vacations or anything else, so we're still waiting," Heyman told CNN by phone. "The hope is still there, but it's waning."
A fire official said 35 people were rescued from the building in the city, just north of Miami Beach, including two who were pulled from the rubble as response teams used trained dogs in a search for survivors.
After speaking with local officials, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said it was possible that more victims could be found in the rubble. He said he planned to go the scene.
"We'll hope for the best in terms of additional recoveries, but we are bracing for some bad news, just given the destruction that we're seeing," DeSantis said at an event at a community college near Tampa.
Built in 1981, the Champlain Towers South had more than 130 units, about 80 of which were occupied.
It was unclear how many people were inside at 2 a.m. (0600 GMT), when an entire side of the building pulled away and fell to the ground below.
"It's hard to imagine how this could have happened," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told reporters. "Buildings just don't fall down."
Construction work was being done on the roof, he said, but it was unclear whether the project involved any heavy gear.
Footage from WPLG Local 10, a Miami TV station, showed a rescue team pulling a boy from piles of debris and rebar, and firefighters using ladder trucks to rescue residents trapped on balconies.
Assistant Fire Chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Raide Jadallah said that rescuers are moving in "heavy equipment" and working to support the remaining structure of the building.
"We are still continuing the search and rescue operations," Jadallah said.
Burkett said that part of the building with balconies facing the beach "pancaked" where one floor appears to have fallen atop another, cascading down.
"The back of the building, probably a third or more, is totally pancaked," he said.
Resident Barry Cohen and his wife were rescued from the building.
"At first it sounded like a flash of lightning or thunder," Cohen, a former vice mayor of Surfside and a resident of the building, told reporters at the scene. "But then it just kept on – steadily for at least 15 to 30 seconds – it just kept on going and going and going."
Cohen also said there had been construction for more than a month on the building's roof.
The Miami-Dade Police have assumed control of the investigation. More than 80 fire and rescue units responded, the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department wrote in a Twitter message early Thursday.
Eyewitness video obtained by Reuters showed neighbors gathering across the street from the rubble.
"This whole building here, it's completely gone," a person can be heard sayingץ
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