In the Florida building collapse, two more victims were found in the rubble of a partially collapsed apartment building in Florida on June 25. This now brings the death toll 22, with 126 people still unaccounted for, officials said. The department said on Twitter that the newly discovered victims included a seven-year-old daughter of one of the first responders. Chances for finding someone still alive beneath the pile have become increasingly slim as the search and rescue operations stretched into a ninth day.
Emergency personnel had been forced to pause their search and rescue efforts for much of Thursday due to concerns about the safety of the pile of debris in Surfside near Miami Beach, but were able to resume work late in the day. Meanwhile, Hurricane Elsa, which has strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane and is now battering islands in the Caribbean, is expected to reach Florida's shores as early as Sunday evening, forecasters said.
Though Elsa's path remains highly uncertain, the hurricane could still possibly bring strong winds and heavy rain to most of Florida, further complicating the rescue effort at the site of the condo collapse. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Friday at a news conference that his state is working on a "dual-track" with the collapse site and Hurricane Elsa potentially impacting South Florida.
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