Fallen condo tower drew global visitors

Hope remains

Raide Jadallah, an assistant Miami-Dade County fire chief, said while listening devices placed on and in the wreckage had picked up no voices, they had detected possible banging noises, giving rescuers hope some are alive. Rescuers were tunneling into the wreckage from below, going through the building's underground parking garage.

Personal belongings were evidence of shattered lives amid the wreckage of the Champlain, which was built in 1981 in Surfside. A children's bunk bed perched precariously on a top floor, bent but intact and apparently inches from falling into the rubble. A comforter lay on the edge of a lower floor.

The seaside condo had a few two-bedroom units on the market, with asking prices ranging from $600,000 to $700,000.

An Argentine couple, Dr Andres Galfrascoli and Fabian Nunez, spent Wednesday night there with their 6-year-old daughter, Sofia, at an apartment belonging to a friend, Nicolas Fernandez.

Galfrascoli, a Buenos Aires plastic surgeon, and Nunez, a theater producer and accountant, had come to Florida to get away from a COVID-19 resurgence. They had worked hard to adopt Sofia, Fernandez said.

"Of all days, they chose the worst to stay there," Fernandez said. "I hope it's not the case, but if they die like this, that would be so unfair."

They weren't the only South Americans missing. Foreign consulates of four countries said 22 nationals were missing. Nine were from Argentina, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela and three from Uruguay.

The Paraguayans included Sophia Lopez Moreira and her family. She is the sister of first lady Silvana Abdo and sister-in-law of President Mario Abdo Benitez.

Israeli media said the country's consul general in Miami, Maor Elbaz, believes 20 citizens of that country are missing.

Agencies and Ai Heping in New York contributed to this story.