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.

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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.

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Harold Maass

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at TheWeek.com. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 launch of the U.S. print edition. Harold has worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, Fox News, and ABC News. For several years, he wrote a daily round-up of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two sons.