As Hurricane Elsa approaches the southeast United States early next week, Miami is preparing for possible complications in search and rescue efforts at the Surfside condo collapse site.
Local officials are unsure whether the storm will cause delays in the rescue mission but said they will modify protocols if necessary.
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“In regards to the hurricane, (it’s) now another significant obstacle in the horizon, heading this direction,” said Alan Cominsky, Miami-Dade fire chief, in a news conference Friday. “We’ll monitor, and we’ll have to see the direction of the storm and how close it gets, and then we’ll have to make the necessary precautions and modifications to our plan.”
Crews are prepared to halt rescue efforts if the structural integrity of the partially collapsed condo building is compromised and threatens the safety of responders. Team members have already dealt with dangerous conditions in the weeklong search, including rain and lightning, structural instability, millions of pounds of debris, and heat exhaustion.
If Elsa affects the site, officials said the high winds could further destabilize the portion of the building still standing.
“Any bad significant wind could potentially bring down the remaining part of that building,” T.J. Lyon, chairman of Florida’s Statewide Emergency Response Plan, told Weather.com on Wednesday.
This comes as the mayor of Miami-Dade County signed an emergency order allowing teams to begin demolishing the remaining units once officials decide how and when to begin.
“The demolition of the building is going to proceed based on the recommendations of the engineers,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “It’s going to take, most likely, weeks.”
However, Cava said authorities would balance the need for demolition with concerns of not impeding the search for survivors.
“We’re very concerned to not compromise our search. But we also know that the building itself poses certain risks, so we have to balance those things,” she said.
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Search and rescue crews recovered two more bodies Friday as the death toll reached 22, with 128 still unaccounted for, according to officials.
Hurricane Elsa, which is a Category 1 hurricane with 85 miles per hour maximum sustained winds as of press time, hit the Windward Islands on Friday and is expected to move into Haiti on Saturday. The Florida Keys and other southern parts of Florida could see strong winds and heavy rain as the storm is projected to swing north.
