[ti:Rescuers Seek Survivors of Building Collapse Near Miami]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Rescue workers still hope to find survivors of the collapse
[00:04.64]of a large condominium building on an island community
[00:09.56]near Miami, Florida, on Thursday.
[00:14.04]Officials now say 10 people have died
[00:17.76]but more than 150 remain missing.
[00:21.52]Families of the missing have taken buses to an area nearby
[00:27.24]to watch the rescue effort,
[00:29.48]which includes using heavy equipment such as cranes.
[00:34.64]Rescue workers are using dogs and high technology devices
[00:39.80]in an effort to find people trapped in the wreckage and concrete.
[00:45.72]But, the search has been slowed by rain and a fire.
[00:52.32]"We have over 80 rescuers at a time
[00:55.84]that are breaching the walls that collapsed,"
[00:59.00]said Andy Alvarez on national television.
[01:04.04]He is a commander with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.
[01:08.48]He said workers are looking in spaces
[01:12.44]left by the collapsed floors and walls.
[01:17.64]"We have been able to tunnel through the building.
[01:21.08]This is a frantic search to seek that hope, that miracle,
[01:26.24]to see who we can bring out of this building alive."
[01:31.04]Alfredo Lopez lived with his wife on the sixth floor of the building.
[01:36.96]They escaped.
[01:39.00]But he said it was hard to believe
[01:42.08]that anyone could have survived the collapse.
[01:46.56]"If you saw what I saw: nothingness.
[01:49.88]And then, you go over there and you see, like, all the rubble.
[01:54.72]How can somebody survive that?" Lopez told the Associated Press.
[02:00.44]Rescuers are using tools such as a microwave radar device
[02:05.96]developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
[02:09.48]and the Department of Homeland Security.
[02:13.72]The chief of the company that sells the device
[02:16.96]said it is able to "see" through up to 20 centimeters of solid concrete.
[02:24.60]It can also listen for human breathing and heartbeats.
[02:30.20]The collapse happened days before people living in the building
[02:34.88]were to start making payments toward a $9 million repair project.
[02:40.80]Three years earlier,
[02:43.12]a report had warned of major structural damage to the building
[02:47.84]which is in the island town of Surfside.
[02:52.48]Six to eight teams are searching
[02:54.76]the partially collapsed building at any given time.
[02:58.64]Hundreds of people are involved in the effort
[03:02.16]which started on Thursday and has not stopped since.
[03:07.80]Earl Tilton is a search-and-rescue expert from North Carolina.
[03:14.40]He warned that moving too fast without careful planning
[03:19.20]can be very dangerous for rescuers.
[03:24.12]"Moving the wrong piece of debris at the wrong time
[03:27.72]could cause it to fall" endangering workers, he said.
[03:33.04]Tilton added that there was still hope of finding people alive.
[03:38.60]He said rescuers have found survivors up to one week after a disaster.
[03:46.16]I'm Caty Weaver.
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