Death toll reaches 9 in Fla. condo collapse

Two large cranes and two backhoes joined the debris-removal on Sunday. Prior efforts had previously been conducted essentially by hand by teams using rescue dogs, sonar, drones and infrared scanners.

One relative asked why the largest pieces of cement couldn't be moved with cranes.

"There's not giant pieces that we can easily surgically remove," replied Maggie Castro, of the fire rescue agency, who described herself as "one of the people out there attempting to find your family members".

"They're not big pieces. Pieces are crumbled, and they're being held together by the rebar that's part of the construction. So if we try to lift that piece, even as carefully, those pieces that are crumbling can fall off the sides and disturb the pile," she said.

She said they try to cut rebar in strategic places and remove large pieces, but that they have to remove them in a way that nothing will fall onto the pile.

"We are doing layer by layer," Castro said. "It doesn't stop. It's all day. All night."

In a meeting with families Saturday evening, people moaned and wept as Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah explained why he could not answer their questions about how many victims they had found, The Associated Press reported.

"It's not necessarily that we're finding victims, OK? We're finding human remains," Jadallah said, according to a video posted on Instagram.