Remaining Florida condo tower demolished so rescuers can keep searching
Demolition experts brought down the rest of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, on Sunday. Search crews paused their recovery efforts on Saturday as Tropical Storm Elsa threatened to hit the area and authorities shifted to a rushed demolition. Miami-Dade County officials had planned to have the building torn down later, but concerns that the storm could knock it down forced them to speed up the timetable.
Almost immediately after the dust began to settle, cranes started moving again as rescue crews resumed their work. Rescuers hope the demolition will help speed up the search effort, as the remaining tower had made it impossible to access about one-third of the existing debris pile, The Washington Post reports. The June 24 collapse killed at least 24 people. More than 120 remain missing.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
-
Stranger Things, series five: ‘grander and gorier’ than everThe Week Recommends The Duffer Brothers’ hit show returns for its ‘thrilling’ final season
-
Pros and cons of geothermal energyPros and Cons Renewable source is environmentally friendly but it is location-specific
-
Should the right to trial by jury be untouchable?Today’s Big Question With a crown court backlog of around 80,000 cases, David Lammy says ‘status quo cannot go on’
-
Honduras votes amid Trump push, pardon vowspeed read President Trump said he will pardon former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who is serving 45 years for drug trafficking
-
Congress seeks answers in ‘kill everybody’ strike reportSpeed Read Lawmakers suggest the Trump administration’s follow-up boat strike may be a war crime
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
