Search and rescue crews unearthed another body Saturday from the rubble of a collapsed condo building in Surfside, Florida, bringing the death toll to five with 156 people still unaccounted for, officials said.
Human remains were also recovered, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Four of the deceased were identified by Miami police as Stacie Dawn Fang, 54; Antonio Lozano, 83; Gladys Lozano, 79; and Manuel LaFont, 54.
"Our top priority continues to be search and rescue, and saving any lives that we can," Levine Cava said. "Our teams have been working around the clock as always. They have not stopped."
Officials are in the process of collecting DNA samples from families to help identify more victims as search efforts continue more than 72 hours after the building crumbled. Rescue teams from Mexico and Israel are helping in ongoing search efforts while additional offers for support from across the world continue to pour in, the mayor said.
"This has truly shown us how truly interconnected we are," she said.
Earlier in the day, crews were hampered by smoke and fire deep below the rubble. The fire was under control as of Saturday evening, but heavy rainfall introduced a new obstacle for search teams.
At one point on Saturday, a crane removed pieces of debris from a 30-foot pile, and rescuers used everything from sonar and drones to big machines and small buckets to pick through the rubble.
"We don't have a resource problem here. We have a luck problem," said Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett.
#embed-20210624-miami-building-collapse-map iframe {width:1px;min-width:100%;}
President Joe Biden tweeted his condolences to those who have lost loved ones and said his administration stands ready to help with local and state efforts.
"My heart is with the community of Surfside as they grieve their lost loved ones and wait anxiously as search and rescue efforts continue," he tweeted. "Yesterday I spoke with Gov. DeSantis to let him know that we are ready to provide assistance as needed by state and local officials."
My heart is with the community of Surfside as they grieve their lost loved ones and wait anxiously as search and rescue efforts continue.
Yesterday I spoke with Gov. DeSantis to let him know that we are ready to provide assistance as needed by state and local officials.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 26, 2021
Meanwhile, officials are considering whether Champlain Towers South's sister property should be temporarily evacuated.
Burkett told NBC Miami that he asked Levine Cava and U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., if Champlain Towers North should be vacated in order for a forensic study to be conducted.
Burkett said that he does not believe Champlain Towers North could potentially fall down, but he said he did not have an answer about whether the building is safe, noting that it is the same design as Champlain Towers South and was probably built with the same material.
According to Miami Condo Investments, Champlain Towers North is 12 stories, the same as its sister property, and has 111 condos.
The cause of Thursday's collapse is still under investigation. A 2018 structural report was released Friday night that shows evidence of cracks and damage in the building. According to the report, an engineer warned there was "major structural damage" in the building.
Burkett told NBC Miami that he has not yet received the report and asked for it to be sent to him. He also said he was not aware of its findings.
"We are going to do a very deep dive into why this building fell down," Burkett told reporters on Saturday.
Levine Cava shared similar sentiments, telling reporters Saturday that she had not known about the report.
In an interview with NBC's "TODAY" show, she said investigators and structural engineers will look into all potential causes of the collapse.
“We have hope, and we need to continue to focus on that,” Levine Cava said. “We are going to get to the bottom of this and find answers and prevent it from ever happening again.”
“We have every possible resource available to us … We are going to get to the bottom of this and find answers and prevent it from ever happening again.”
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava joins us with the latest updates on rescue efforts in Surfside, Florida. pic.twitter.com/yLmBXWD5VB
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 26, 2021
In the meantime, Miami-Dade County will conduct audits of all buildings 40 years and older, the mayor announced Saturday. The process will be conducted within the next 30 days.
"We want to make sure that every building has completed its recertification process, and we want to move swiftly to remediate any issues that may have been identified in that process," Levine Cava said.
Records showed Champlain Towers South was built in 1981. The building is across from a beach in the oceanfront community of about 6,000 people.
Surfside Commissioner Eliana Salzhauer said Thursday that the building was undergoing inspection for its 40-year recertification, which takes about a year. Champlain Towers North was built around the same time, according to the commissioner.
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