Condo Collapse: Families Anxiously Await Word On Loved Ones
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Families are anxiously awaiting word on their loved ones who may have been killed in a condo collapse in Surfside.
A family reunification center had been set up at the Surfside Community Center, at 9301 Collins Avenue, just blocks away Champlain Towers South, where 55 units on the northeast side came tumbling down early Thursday morning.
The reunification center is moving from the Surfside Community Center to the Grand Beach Hotel at 9449 Collins Avenue on Friday.
A hotline - (305) 614-1819 - has been set up to report a person missing from the building.
As of Friday morning, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said 159 people are still not accounted for. Three bodies were removed from the rubble overnight, bringing the death toll to four. Rescue crews are doing DNA tests with family members to identify victims.
Sergio Lozano said he fears the worst for his parents, Gladys and Antonio Lozano.
"My wife was walking behind me because she was going to help me bring in the patio furniture and I told her, the building is not there. She's yelling 'what do you mean?' My parent's apartment is not there, it's gone," he said.
"He called me up and said mom and dad are gone. I said what do you mean? he said the building isn't there," said Antonio Lozano. "A building falls down in a third world country where they don't have building codes and stuff, a building shouldn't collapse like that."
Many are holding out hope, like Rodrigo Salem.
"We want to find them, they don't speak English, they don't have ID, they're missing," he said.
Rodrigo is trying to learn anything about his friends, Fabian Nunez and Andres Galfasconi, and their young daughter. They were staying inside one of the condos. He said he was there hours before the collapse.
Rodrigo said the collapse was unimaginable, but the warning signs were there.
"I knew that there were cracks on the wall but we didn't think that would happen," he said.
Judy Spiegel is among the missing. Her husband and son have not given up hope.
"We have a lot of hope that she's alive and still there. She's an amazing woman, she's a great mother, grandmother," said Judy's husband Kevin Spiegel.
Another mother missing is Sophia Lopez Moreira, who is related to the President of Paraguay, along with her family.
So far, the reunification center has only been able to reunite one family.
Anyone who lives in the building is encouraged to complete a Wellness Check Form as part of efforts to ensure all tenants of the building are located.