Fallen condo tower drew global visitors

The Champlain Towers South drew people from around the world to enjoy life on South Florida's Atlantic coast. They include a couple from Argentina and their young daughter. There were Orthodox Jews from Russia. Some Israelis. The sister of Paraguay's first lady and a gaggle from South America.

They were among the 159 people who remained missing on Friday, a day after the 12-story building collapsed into rubble early on Thursday. The Champlain's beach side sheared off for seemingly no reason, pancaking into a pile of concrete and metal more than 10 meters high.

At least four people had been confirmed dead, and officials fear the number could easily skyrocket. Eleven were reported injured, with four people treated at nearby hospitals.

"Everything is gone," said Erick de Moura, 40, who was at the town's community center trying to find temporary accommodation. The Brazilian had lived for three years on the 10th floor of the oceanfront building.

He survived because he had decided to stay at his girlfriend's house that night. "I am homeless now. I lost my papers, documents, everything. My green card, my money," he said. "I just came back and the scene is shocking. There is a lot of pain. I'm blessed that I am alive."

As for his neighbors, he said: "I think they're gone."

US President Joe Biden on Friday approved an emergency declaration in Florida and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

Rescue crews picked through tons of rubble on Thursday looking for survivors at the oceanfront apartment tower. Officials said no cause for the collapse has been determined. Officials said the tower was undergoing roof construction and other repairs.

Video of the collapse showed the center of the building appearing to tumble down first. A section nearest the ocean teetered and came down seconds later, as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighborhood. About half the building's roughly 130 units were affected.

"We do have 120 people now accounted for, which is very, very good news. But our unaccounted for number has gone up to 159," Miami-Dade County mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference on Friday.

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.