By COLlive reporter
Search and rescue personnel are working to reconstruct the building plans of the Chaplain Towers which collapsed in Surfside, Florida, last week.
United Hatzalah of Israel was dispatched on Saturday night together with the IDF’s Home Front Command in order to assist the forces and people on the ground cope with the ongoing rescue operations that have been taking place since Thursday morning.
Shmuel Druin, a resident of North Miami Beach who is volunteering at the site, said engineers are working with Hatzalah and the IDF to accurately draw the building plans in a desperate effort to pinpoint the search and rescue teams could have a clear picture of where in the rubble to look for survivors.
Reports say 151 people remain unaccounted for in the sudden collapse of the 12-story beachfront condominium. A 10th body has been pulled out from the rubble on Monday.
“What we’re trying to do is to find out which condos were occupied and which were not,” Druin told COLlive.com on Monday about his work with the rescue team from Israel.
“There are a lot of gaps,” he added. “We have the official architecture plans but what we want to know is which rooms were used as bedrooms and whether someone was there (at the time of the collapse).”
Druin said that drawing the full layout of the building might take time. “We need this information within 24 hours because it takes time to create the schematics,” he said.
(Those with information should email: [email protected])
Despite 5 days passing since the catastrophe, city officials are asking families of the victims not to fall into despair, despite reports of such growing feelings in the media.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava stated in a press conference: “We’re going to continue and work ceaselessly to exhaust every possible option in our search.”
U.S. Congressman Carlos Gimenez, former Mayor of Miami and a firefighter, said: “You don’t want to call something off too early and then find out later that somebody was there alive, and you could have gotten to them, so you need to give them time,” Gimenez said.
“You got 240 search-and-rescue personnel all over that pile. We were told today that we are going to enhance that,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, according to WPLG Local10.com.
VIDEO: Officials Hold Briefing On Florida Building Collapse on June 28
