24 people are confirmed dead. 121 others still missing. Their families awaiting answers with hope for a miracle, all but gone. The demolition comes as tropical Storm Elsa takes aim at florida. Watches and warnings now up for the keys and much of the states West Coast. The outer bands of the storm expected to have a broad impact. Lets take you now live to surfside, florida and cnns Natasha Chen live with our top story. Natasha, bring us up to speed. What is the latest . Reporter boris, the Search And Rescue mission really resumed shortly after that demolition at 10 30 p. M. Last night. Im told they got back on site 20 minutes later and continued searching and the families have been very grateful for that action. So urgently resuming. So right now that controlled demolition has really helped in making sure that they could access areas that they werent able to get to before. Prior to the demolition, it was difficult for the Search And Rescue teams to get to the part closest to the remaini
In fact, it opened up a new area we were not able to search before. A big curveball to their efforts is tropical Storm Elsa. That Storm Churning Forward Floft right now. The latest on that Storms Trajectory and what it means for the Research And Rescue efforts in surfside. Also a new sense of freedom after more than a year of the pandemic. But were not Out Of The Woods yet. Were falling short of the goal to get americans vaccinated by the fourth and what it means for the future of the night. A race against time in surfside as tropical Storm Elsa now barrels towards the coast. Just demolished overnight. The Florida Keys as the state prepares for a storm, and we are tracking tropical Storm Elsa for us. Three more victims found again. Comes just a short time ago in the last hour. A storm could complicate a grim situation there. Officials not taking any chances. How does all of this impact the Search And Rescue efforts now . Yeah, so with the successful demolition of what was left of the t
Any new details that you could share with us before that briefing? well, you know, i met with the families this morning after i took a walk on the site. and i could confirm that i ve never seen the site so busy with men, women and equipment. it is really encouraging to see how aggressively they are attacking the pile. up at the family meeting, when the family was told that the search resumed 20 minutes after the demolition, there was applause. i believe there was great relief and gratefulness towards the search and rescue workers who have been just tirelessly sort of plowing ahead against all kinds of difficult situations. as i ve said, there is not a resource problem, we just had a little bit of a luck problem and now with the storm moving away and with this building that was a looming danger and preventing a lot of work from being done, being gone we re now at 100% full strength, full on, pulling
Responders to ensure that all of the pets that were beloved family members, that none of them were left in the building prior to the demolition. since the first responders were able to resume their work on the collapse last night, we have very sadly recovered three additional victims. the total number of confirmed deaths is now at 27. the number of those accounted for is 191. and unaccounted for, 118. please join me in praying for those who lost their lives and the families who mourn and for all of those who are still waiting. we continue to monitor tropical storm elsa and expect that miami-dade will mostly experience heavy rain and some winds throughout today and tomorrow. i was grateful to have the opportunity to speak with some of the first responders on site last night right after the demolition, before they headed back out to the pile.
Out to the pile. on day 12, these men and women have continued their mission, they have the same determination and strength as when they got out on a day one if is a true honor to serve alongside the heros and sheros. from the state, from the federal, and from the international teams, all of our partners have made this historic effort possible. [ speaking spanish ] we have been listening to the mayor updating us on precisely why they had demolished the building on sunday night. the mayor saying they could not access part of the building they