Death toll rises to 9 in Miami-area condo collapse

Responders at collapsed Florida condo — (Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Search and rescue workers have discovered eight bodies while carefully excavating a 12-story condo in Surfside, Florida, that collapsed early Thursday, and a ninth victim died in the hospital, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Sunday. Four recovered bodies have been identified, and 156 residents of the Champlain Towers South are unaccounted for. It isn't yet clear what caused the deadly collapse, but a 2018 engineering report released by Surfside over the weekend warned of "major structural damage" in the condo tower's pool deck slab and "abundant cracking and spalling" of concrete columns, beams, and walls in the building's parking garage. Repairs were underway on the building's roof before the collapse, but "concrete restoration had not yet begun," the engineering firm that wrote the report, Morabito Consultants, said Saturday.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.