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South Florida family loses 92-year-old matriarch in collapse
Freida Frisaro And Joshua Goodman
Associated Press
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This photo provided by Sally Noriega shows Hilda Noriega. More than 150 people remained unaccounted for as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., on Saturday, June 26, 2021. Noriega had called Champlain Towers home for more than 20 years. (Courtesy of Sally Noriega via AP)
SURFSIDE, Fla. – A 92-year-old woman who had lived in a beachside Florida condominium for more than 20 years has been found dead amid the collapsed tower’s rubble, her family said Wednesday.
Hilda Noriega had recently put the condo up for sale and was planning to move in with her family. They were notified late Tuesday that she was the 12th victim recovered from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Florida. More than 140 people were still listed as unaccounted for early Wednesday.
The number of dead from the collapse of a 12-story condo in Surfside took on an even more sobering tone Wednesday when it was announced that two bodies recently recovered were children, aged four and 10. Any loss of life, especially given the nature of this unexpected, unprecedented event, is a tragedy, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. But the loss of our children is too great to bear.
The afternoon announcement came after a day in which more than 200 search-and-rescue specialists worked in sticky humid conditions with intermittent downpours, all with eyes on a system brewing in the Atlantic that could hamper their efforts.
SURFSIDE, Fla. – The bodies of two children were found in the rubble of the collapsed condo building outside Miami on Wednesday, raising the death toll in the disaster to 18.
The children were 4 and 10 years old, said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who provided the update at an afternoon news conference. The number of missing people is now 145. Any loss of life, especially given the nature of this unexpected, unprecedented event, is a tragedy, Levine Cava said. But the loss of our children is too great to bear.
Earlier in the day, Levine Cava has said four additional victims had been identified, at the time bringing the total to 16. Search officials vowed to press on with the rescue effort around the clock despite the possibility of tropical storms approaching the area.