olympics. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is early start. i m wendy in for christine romains. great to have you in person. i m laura jarret. we have reports this morning from istanbul, washington, portland, tokyo, sydney, and the middle of the atlantic ocean. we start this morning in surf side, florida with troubling new information suggesting residents of that condo that collapsed last week in florida were told their building was, quote, in very good shape. npr obtained the minutes with the 2018 meeting where assurances were made by the surf side town inspector. cnn learned two days earlier, the same official received an engineering report warning of, quote, major structure damage to the tower. this morning the senicommunis trying to keep hope alive for the families of at least 152 people still missing in draft condo collapse. nine people are new confirmed dead. the cause of the collapse is unknown. the difficult task of searc
might finally see a miracle here, boris. reporter: yeah, christie, there is hope and frustration here with news slowly trickling in. the number of people confirmed dead now up to five. four have been identified. they include an elderly comfortable and the mother of a boy that was actually rescued from the rubble in dramatic fashion on thursday morning. for dozens of families though it remains an ex kcruciating time,n anxious weight in anticipation for answers. 156 people remain missing, still unaccounted for. more than 72 hours since the collapse. the search and rescue effort continues non-stop, and crews are using every tool they have, sonar equipment, cameras, canines on the season to help. and even then there is still an element of uncertainty here. and it may not be enough. all off this effort. the mayor of surfside yesterday saying, we don t have a resource problem. we have a luck problem. and as families wait in agony for any kind of update on their loved ones, the ma
up to their knees and their waist. they are crawling into crevices through the rubble looking for possible survivors. officials say they have heard sounds from underneath this debris, but they cannot confirm hearing any voices at this time. officials say president biden is receiving updates on this. he is expected to address this later today at the white house. let s go to our colleagues in florida. dr. sanjay gupta there. rosa, let s begin with you. what more have we learned this morning especially about the number unaccounted for? reporter: you know, poppy, we were expecting this to happen. i know governor desantis mentioned it yesterday, that they knew that more bad news was going to be coming in the coming hours, and we learned that overnight three more bodies were pulled from the rubble. that, of course, brings the death toll to four. we are also learning about the challenges that firefighters were facing overnight. fires that not only started, but then were re-ignited
shock. i was in a deep sleep and i heard an incredible bang. and we opened up the door from our apartment and there was a huge pile of rubble. and dust. and just havoc. grabbed the childrenen a st and started running out the door and everybody was screaming and panicking. everybody was here but the wife and three children, 2, 6 and 9. were they here visiting? doct yes, vacation. i m just asking god because they are in the affected area. and there are still many questions. chief among them, what could have caused such catastrophic failure? one expert s opinion, corrosion of steel. and it means that the building was assumed by the series of pillars. so if the pillars fail, everything fails. so that is exactly what it looked like. and i seen the failures like that, hundreds of them like that. and this is right next to the ocean and also that area collapses also a sign. so corrosion of the reinforcement will compromise the capacity of thec column fai fails. and of
mentioned, wourking around the clock putting their own lives at risk hoping there are lives to save beneath the rubble. here in surf side hope is the only thing a lot of people have right now. 159 people still unaccounted for. at least four people are dead and being here on the scene you realize not just the scope of the collapse but also the factors that are going to complicate a rescue. the smoke that s still in the air from nearly incessant fires underneath this field of debris. of course, the scale of the challenge that is facing these emergency teams. right now they re racing against the clock and yet having to move in a painstakingly slow fashion to sift through debris as, again, those frequent fires, bad weather, and smokey conditions complicate their work. we re all essentially stuck waiting for news, any sign that would keep hope alive and as we speak, there are teams standing by waiting to treat anyone that they may find on site. as we hope for answers, there s no