Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett speaks to a reporter outside the site of Thursday’s disaster at Champlain Towers South. Photo credit: Rachel Pinzur
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett walked through crowds of first responders and reporters Saturday, answering questions and offering support to families near the former Champlain Towers South, a 13-story condominium replaced by a smoking pile of rubble after its collapse Thursday.
“My role is very insignificant,” Burkett said. “My duties are really to support the families, which is what I’ve primarily been focusing on, because obviously what they’re going through is really unimaginable.”
At about 1:30 a.m. on June 24, the beach-front condo crashed to the ground in a pile of fiery rubble, turning the small beach-side town of Surfside, just north of Miami Beach, upside down.
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Apr 5, 2021 12:34 PM EDT
When a deadly winter storm this February left more than four million people in Texas without power, nearly 15 million without clean water, and 111 people killed, Secunda Joseph sought refuge in her cousin’s Houston home. Joseph was unable to make phone calls, but was still receiving text messages from community members reaching out to the community-organized hotline she helps manage, for assistance.
Emergency services were overwhelmed. So were grocery stories and gas stations if people could actually reach them. Home and utility damage was rampant, and estimates for repairs stretched out months. Joseph wanted to help, but her car had been frozen over in the storm and wouldn’t start. Wasting no time, fellow organizer Josie Pickens picked her up so they could drive to distribution sites around the city to get a sense of what resources were available and how many people were in need of aid.