‘You can imagine the horrible anguish’ — families searching for Surfside loved ones
Luz Marina Peña, whose 77-year-old aunt is missing in the Surfside condo collapse, had been waiting outside the family reunification center since 5 a.m. Thursday, after getting a call from a cousin in New York with the news.
“You can imagine the horrible anguish, because you don’t know what — if she’s under the debris, if she’s alive, if she isn’t,” said Peña, who held up a photo of her missing aunt, Marina Azen.
Azen is asthmatic and lived alone on the fourth floor of the building, Peña said.
“We’ve called the police stations, we’ve called the hospitals, we’ve done the police report. We’ve done everything humanly possible,” said Peña. “We want to be in the first place where we can get the news.”
The ocean-facing portion of Champlain Towers South Condo, completed in 1981 with 130 units at 8777 Collins Ave., collapsed around 1:23 a.m. Thursday, trapping residents asleep in their beds.
Families searching for information
Hundreds of families and loved ones searched frantically for information Thursday at the family reunification center set up at the Surfside Community Center, with some cupping their faces as they wept while others embraced relatives.
Volunteers brought coffee, sandwiches and coats to the center, 9301 Collins Ave., a few blocks north of the rubble. Staff working at plastic fold-out tables split up the crowd in groups, based on building and floor number, because many residents had nowhere to go. Fifty-five units in the building collapsed, and there were at least 99 people unaccounted for as of Thursday evening.
Aleida Gonzalez, who lives down the street, was visibly upset as she tried to determine whether her family members were OK. She said they were a popular couple in the building: one a therapist and the other an attorney. They had lived there for more than 20 years.
“All I can say is this was a good building,” Gonzalez said. “I have never heard about any problems there.”
Gonzalez first heard of the collapse when she woke up and saw it on the news. She rushed down to the reunification center not knowing whether her loved ones were safe, but there was no one there who could ease her concerns.
“I’m trying to get a head count,’’ she said. “ … They can’t release anything.”
Sophia López Moreira Bó, the younger sister of First Lady of Paraguay Silvana López Moreira Bó, along with her husband, Luis Pettengill, and their three young children, were among the missing. They were accompanied by Lady Villalba, a domestic worker.
“You feel like you are nothing. You want to do so much but you can’t do it, you have no strength,” said Yuby Cartes, an aunt of Pettengill’s. “I’m staying here until I learn something.” Cartes said their relatives are coming in a private plane to Miami as they await news.
Sergio Barth, a Doral resident, said his brother, Luis Fernando Barth, was visiting from Colombia with his wife and 14-year-old daughter. They were staying in the apartment of a close friend for about a month before the collapse.
The family was in South Florida to get vaccinated. Barth said they all received both their two doses and were set to leave the Surfside apartment on Thursday afternoon. Now, they are missing.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty, no useful information right now,” said Barth.
Tourists who were staying nearby
Many of those at the scene were tourists who had been evacuated from nearby buildings.
Abigail Crosby and Aaron Miles, both 20, had been staying for a week at the Bluegreen Vacations Solara Surfside resort, 8801 Collins Ave., the building next door, visiting from Charlottesville, Virginia. They were both awakened around 1 a.m. with fire alarms.
“We had five kids on the second floor so I threw the phone down and grabbed the littlest one … and whatever I had I grabbed,” said Crosby.
They said the collapse initially sounded like a strong wind, and they both assumed there was a storm coming.
“When you go to the lobby it was nothing but dust and debris,” said Miles. “As soon as I pulled back the curtain, my heart dropped knowing that there was people I had seen just that afternoon before we had left, playing with children and things like that.”
Wayne Conner, who was visiting Miami Beach from Virginia with 10 family members, was not missing any loved ones, but he had no idea where he was going to stay.
Conner said he was sleeping in his room at the Solara resort, when he awoke to what sounded like a loud crash of thunder.
“I thought a storm had come through. All of a sudden the fire alarm went off,” Conner said.
The rubble of the building made it apparent that the condo tower had collapsed straight down on top of itself, he added.
“It reminded me of the World Trade Center and 9/11,” Conner said.
Aid groups arrive
The Cadena Foundation, a Mexico-based humanitarian aid organization with offices in Miami, brought in a truckload of food, water and other necessities. Other volunteers brought in televisions and snacks for the families and friends who were hoping to hear word about their missing loved ones.
Miami-Dade Police Department Community Affairs Bureau brought therapy dogs, and county chaplains offered spiritual counseling.
Jeepers, the 5-year-old therapy dachsund, garnered the attention of children who filled the more family-oriented of the two rooms at the center.
Sybil Hart, a 30-year resident of a condo on 93rd and Collins, lingered nearby after finally finding out that a friend was safe after what felt like “a day of broken telephone.”
“We used to want more parks and green space,” said Hart, who has long been skeptical of development on Collins Avenue. “Now we are just scared for our safety.”
Reunification hotline
Families and loved ones who have relatives who live or work at the Champlain Tower and are unaccounted for or know that they are safe should call 305-614-1819 to notify officials, said Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the agency taking the lead in the search-and-rescue mission.
Other hotline numbers are: 305-215-5894; 305-215-7140; 305-215-5879
This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 8:14 AM.
