911 calls released from Surfside, Florida condo collapse: "There's people in the rubble yelling"

Recordings of 911 calls after an oceanfront Florida condominium building collapsed in the middle of the night show disbelief, panic and confusion as people tried to comprehend the disaster.

"Oh my God! The whole building collapsed!" one caller said to a dispatcher at the Miami-Dade Police Department, which released the recordings Wednesday from the June 24 collapse of Champlain Towers South.

Another caller said they heard people yelling in the rubble, CBS Miami reported.

"People are yelling, saying they're stuck, on the part of the building that collapsed. They're yelling. There's people in the rubble yelling, just so you know."

The names of the callers were not released.

"We've gotta get out. Hurry up, hurry up. There's a big explosion," another caller said. "There's a lot of smoke. I can't see anything. We gotta go. I can't see nothing but smoke."

At least 97 people are confirmed dead in the collapse, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, and a handful of others are still missing. A cause has not yet been pinpointed, although there were several previous warnings of major structural damage at the 40-year-old building in Surfside.

One 911 caller, a woman, said she saw what appeared to be a large depression near the swimming pool, which had concrete problems that investigators are looking into as they try to identify a cause.

"I woke up because I was hearing some noise. I couldn't understand what was happening. I looked outside and I saw the patio area sinking down. The pool area started sinking down," the caller said. "There are many parts of the building that went down. The building just went into a sinkhole. There will be many, many people dead."

Yet another female caller said she was stuck near the building parking garage and needed help. Part of the condo remained standing after the collapse but was taken down later by a demolition crew.

"Can somebody help me get out, please? If the building comes down, it will come down on my head," the caller said.

Goldberg said the decision did not necessarily preclude a buyer from turning at least a portion of the site into a memorial, as some people have advocated. Other survivors want the structure rebuilt so they can move back in.