Shocking pictures show the destruction and devastation caused after the collapse of a residential building in Florida yesterday that killed one person, with 99 people still unaccounted for.
Emergency workers have been fighting tooth and nail to rescue people after the building fell and have already pulled at least two people from the rubble.
The 12-storey Champlain Towers South Condo stood on Collins Avenue in Surfside, not far from Miami Beach, but yesterday it 'pancaked' down, according to officials.
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As it stands, many families are still waiting on news of their loved ones who were inside the building at the time of the collapse.
One such person is Jenny Urgelles, whose parents Ray and Mercy Urgelles live in the building.
She told NBC: "I can't believe that this is actually happening."
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Urgelles said that she'd called around several area hospitals asking for news, but had so far found nothing.
She continued: "I just feel like it's like waves of emotion that I'm going through right now.
"You see the photos [of the collapse] and they're so awful."
It is not clear what caused the collapse, but a study in 2020 showed that the building could have been sinking for decades beforehand.
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Shimon Wdowinski, a professor at Florida International University, conducted research to discover which parts of Miami were sinking in order to determine areas that could be affected by coastal flooding and sea level rise.
He and his team found that Champlain Towers was sinking at a rate of around two millimetres per year in the 1990s.
He told USA Today: "I looked at it this morning and said, 'Oh my god.' We did detect that.
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"We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement
"We didn't give it too much importance."
He went on to say that he didn't believe anyone in local government would have been aware of the study, and that the study focused on flooding rather than engineering concerns.
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In a statement on Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he hoped the remaining survivors would be found.
He said: "We still have hope to be able to identify additional survivors."
DeSantis added: "The TV doesn't do it justice.
"It is really, really traumatic to see the collapse of a massive structure like that.
"They are trying to identify survivors. I know they have made contact with some.
"They're doing everything they can to save lives, and that is ongoing. They're not going to rest."
Featured Image Credit: Google Earth