Biden has a packed schedule for the trip. He will first have a briefing with Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, other local leaders and first responders. Then he will thank the first responders and search-and-rescue teams, meet with families of the victims and missing residents. Finally, the president will deliver public remarks at around 4 p.m.
Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell will also join Biden in Surfside.
“They want to thank the heroic first responders, search and rescue teams, and everyone who has been working tirelessly around the clock, and meet with the families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy waiting in anguish and heartbreak for word of their loved ones, to offer them comfort as search and rescue efforts continue,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday.
“And they want to make sure that state and local officials have the resources and support they need under the emergency declaration,” she added.
Biden approved Florida’s emergency declaration and ordered federal assistance to assist local efforts in Sulfide last week.
One week after the tragic collapse of the 12-story beachfront building, search and recovery teams are still mining through the rubble in search of victims and survivors. About 55 of the 136 units in the building were demolished, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah.
As of Wednesday, 18 people have died, including two children, and 147 people are missing, according to local officials.
“Any loss of life — especially given the unexpected, unprecedented nature of this event — is a tragedy. But the loss of our children is too great to bear,” Cava said during a press conference in Surfside on Wednesday evening. “We’re now standing united once again with this terrible new revelation that children are the victims as well.”
The cause of the collapse is still unknown at this time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has established a National Construction Safety Team to investigate the incident.
After meeting with Surfside families, Biden reiterated that there is still no “firm proof” as to why the collapse happened, but lots of “rational speculation.” Some of the families he met with believed rising water levels and global warming are to blame, while others have attributed the collapse to improper upkeep of the facility, he said.
Biden praised the families for their resilience, commitment and “willingness to do whatever it took to find an answer.”
“I walked away impressed by their strength,” he said.
He said that the families awaiting news are “very realistic” about the possibility of a missing member coming back alive at this point, but they still want answers
Additionally, he praised the cooperation he’d witnessed between figures like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Rick Scott, saying they all “cut through the bureaucracy” in dealing with the tragedy.
The live updates for this event have concluded.
“I walked away impressed by their strength,” he said.
He said that the families still waiting for word “very realistic” about the possibility of missing member coming back alive, but they still don’t want to cease search and rescue efforts.
“They know that the chances, as each day goes by, are diminished slightly. At a minimum, they want to recover the bodies,” he said.
He also compared the experiences of the Surfside families he met with to losing his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, and their daughter, Naomi, in a car accident.
“When the accident took my wife and my family, the hardest part was [were] my boys going to get out? Were they going to make it?”
He pledged to be in touch with many of the families moving forward, “but there is much more to be done.”
“It’s really a testament to how difficult things are down here,” he said
He also asserted that he and his colleagues had “cut through the bureaucracy” in dealing with the tragedy.
“That’s why we decided to cover, for example, 100% of the search and rescue cost for the first 30 days. [It’s] not often, but necessary here, in my opinion.”
Biden stated that investigation for the collapse is still underway, but some of the families he spoke to surmised that the collapse may have been caused by rising water levels and global warming.
“There’s all kinds of rational speculation,” he said.
Surfside has a significant Jewish population. According to the Times of Israel, more than a third of the North Beach area, which includes Surfside and three other small towns, is Jewish.
Erdan met with the Israeli rescue delegation and thanked them for their work.
“I arrived today at the scene of the horrific disaster in Surfside Miami and was shocked by the harsh sights,” he said in a tweet. “My heart goes out to the families of those killed and missing.”
Even as search and rescue operations are stalled due to structural safety concerns, Erdan told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that he and his teams will stay as long as they are needed.
“The authorities here should decide when is the time to call it a recovery…and then it will be our time to leave,” he said. “But as long as they tell us here to stay, we’ll stay.”
“I just wish there was something I could do to ease the pain,” he said in a video posted on Instagram by Jacqueline Patoka.
According to pool reports, Biden made brief remarks from the center of the room and then went from table to table to have individual conversations. He stayed until everyone had a chance to speak with him.
Biden offered his prayers and support, drawing on his own personal experiences with grief and loss to comfort families amid this tragedy and urged them to “never give up hope,” the Associated Press reports.
“The people you may have lost — they’re gonna be with you your whole life,” Biden told the families. “A part of your soul, a part of who you are.”
Biden told the families that it can be “harder to grieve in public than it is in private, so I know there’s an extra burden on you all.”
“But I promise you, I still believe in prayer,” he said. “You’re in my prayers.”
Earlier Thursday, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said structural instability halted rescue efforts as crews noticed large cracks and movements in the concrete slabs on the building.
“I don’t have a timeframe now,” Cominsky said at a press briefing Thursday morning.
The deputy commander for the Israeli search-and-rescue team at the site told the Miami Herald that there was nothing to do but wait.
“The collapse is very, very unique,” Elad Edri said. “The building was collapsed inside itself, and it collapsed in four different phases. And each phase collapsed above the former one. So we are dealing with a few thousand layers and floors, one above another.”
Edri described the collapsed wreckage as “the most complicated site I have ever seen in my life.”
About 80 members of the Pennsylvania-Task Force 1(PA-TF1) were deployed Wednesday night with buses and trucks filled with resources and equipment.
This Philadelphia Fire Department sponsors the task force, which is made up of several PFD members and other first responders from across the region.
“We can only imagine the pain of those who have lost loved ones or are still waiting to hear about their loved ones,” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said. “The men and women of PA-TF1 know the dangerous work they will face when they arrive onsite, but the ability to bring closure to families and friends of the victims of this collapse is also a tremendous blessing.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also announced Wednesday that members of the New Jersey Task Force 1 will also make their way to Florida Thursday.
“New Jersey stands with Florida,” he said in a tweet.
Biden thanked the men and women for their efforts over the past week, noting how “psychologically” troublesome the rescue operations have been.
“We know what you’re doing here is incredible, with all the uncertainty,” Biden said.
He shared his personal admiration for firefighters, sharing how first responders used the jaws of life to save his two sons from the car accident in 1972 that killed his wife and young daughter.
“We understand what you’re doing now is hard as hell,” he said. “I just want to say thank you.”
Biden also discussed his appreciation for firefighters amind his conversations with governors in western states dealing with wildfires and draughts during the current heatwave.
He said fire season started earlier this year and state officials are asking for more firefighters.
“We need you and we fully appreciate you,” he added. “Be careful.”
The email said that rescue workers were “involved with an active conversation with the female trapped next to the bed about 10 to 11 hours after the collapse.”
It explained that the woman “was aware her parents were also trapped next to her.”
But after a fire broke out, the rescue workers had to withdraw, the email said. Rescuers “know she passed” and felt the deep emotional impact of the loss.
“They saw the wind knocked out of our guys,” it said.
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Biden told officials to “just pick up the phone and call” for whatever they need for the federal government.
He added that about 500 more FEMA workers are expected to join the efforts in Surfside.
Both Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted the great cooperation between local, state and federal officials and agencies.
“You know what’s good about this? It lets the nation know we can cooperate,” Biden said. “And when it’s really important… we come together. This is life and death.”
DeSantis thanked Biden for the swift federal aid deployed to Florida.
“We’ve had no bureaucracy,” DeSantis said. “We are getting [federal] aid in no time.”
“You recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one, and you’ve been very supportive,” he added.
De Santis said local officials and first responders have received all the resources they’ve asked for and now all they need is “a little bit of luck and a little bit of prayers.”
“We’d love to see a miracle. We will not stop until we identify everybody,” DeSantis said.
Levine-Cava said that the halt in operation is not due to President Biden’s visit.
On-site engineers noticed some concerns, including 6 to 12-inches of movement on a large column hanging from the structure that “could fall and cause damage to the support columns” in the sub-terrain garage area, movement in the concrete floor slabs that “could cause additional failure of the building,” and other movements in the debris pile near the structure, according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Cheif Alan Cominsky.
She said that engineers are looking into the structure, as search-and-rescue workers noticed 6 to 12-inches of movement underneath the debris. Engineers are checking the stability of the mounds of debris at the site now.
“Safety of workers is paramount,” Levine-Cava said.
She added that there are no new updates on numbers of dead or missings persons.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis notes that officials are not giving up hope yet.
“Continuing searching [for survivors] is very important,” he said.
DeSantis also notes the incoming tropical storm that could cause potential issues for efforts on the site.
While South Florida is in the cone of concern for tropical storm Elsa, officials said it is too early to know if the storm will hit Florida. Officials will have to wait until the weekend to know more about the trajectory of the storm.
