US President Joe Biden on Thursday offered comfort to the grieving and federal support for the continuing efforts to search for the missing and rebuild after last week’s collapse of a high-rise condo building along the Florida coastline.
Mr Biden, responding to what appeared to be the deadliest calamity of his presidency, also met with first responders hunting for survivors in the rubble in Surfside. But underscoring the dangers still present in the search, work was halted before Mr Biden arrived due to concerns about the stability of the section still standing, though rescue efforts resumed later on Thursday.
The president and the first lady arrived in Florida a week after the collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing. Hundreds of first responders and search and rescue personnel have been painstakingly searching the pancaked rubble for potential signs of life. No one has been rescued since the first hours after the collapse.
“This is life and death,” Mr Biden said at a briefing from officials about the collapse. “We can do it; just the simple act of everyone doing what needs to be done makes a difference.”
He said he believed the federal government has “the power to pick up 100 per cent of the cost” of the search and clean-up and urged local officials to turn to Washington for assistance.
“You all know it, because a lot of you have been through it as well,” Mr Biden said. “There’s going to be a lot of pain and anxiety and suffering and even the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow. And so, we’re not going anywhere.”
Mr Biden was briefed on the situation with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, as well as the state's two Republican senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. The mayor, a Democrat, saluted the efforts to cross party lines in a time of “an unprecedented devastating disaster” and added that the unified government and community response “is what gives us hope”.
Mr DeSantis, a rumoured Republican 2024 presidential candidate, told Mr Biden that the “cooperation has been great”, declaring that the administration has “not only been supportive at the federal level, but we’ve had no bureaucracy".
“You know what’s good about this?” Mr Biden said when he pledged federal help. “It lets the nation know we can co-operate. That’s really important.”
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A couple waits for news of their loved ones from a condominium that collapsed in Surfside, Florida. Marta Lavandier / AP Photo -
An aerial view of the search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach. Chandan Khanna / AFP -
View of a 12-story condominium building that partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida. Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich / EPA -
This aerial shot shows search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach. Chandan Khanna / AFP -
A Miami-Dade Fire Rescue team sprays water onto the rubble as rescue efforts continue where a wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed, late on Thursday, June 24, 2021, in Miami. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo -
Lightning strikes above the Champlain Towers South as Search and Rescue personnel work after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach. Chandan Khanna / AFP -
Search and Rescue personnel hold a stretcher after recovering a body from the rubble after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021. Chandan Khanna / AFP -
A building that partially collapsed is seen in Surfside, near Miami Beach, Florida. Octavio Jones / Reuters -
Emergency crew members search for missing residents in a partially collapsed building in Surfside, near Miami Beach, Florida. Octavio Jones / Reuters -
Emergency crews respond to a partially collapsed residential building in Surfside, near Miami Beach Florida. Marco Bello / Reuters -
A couple embrace as they wait for news of survivors from a condominium that collapsed in Surfside, Florida. Marta Lavandier / AP Photo -
A woman cries while waiting for news of survivors from a condominium that partially collapsed in Surfside, Florida. Marta Lavandier / AP Photo -
This aerial view shows search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach. Chandan Khanna / AFP
Mr Biden met first responders as well as family members of those affected by the collapse before delivering remarks Thursday afternoon. A visit to the collapse site was uncertain, however, amid concerns about the stability of the debris.
Few public figures connect as powerfully on grief as Mr Biden, who lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car collision and later an adult son to brain cancer. In the first months of his term, he has drawn on that empathy to console those who have lost loved ones, including the more than 600,000 who have died in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Early Thursday, the White House said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had deployed 60 staff and an additional 400 personnel across five search and rescue teams at the request of local officials. The agency also awarded $20 million to the state’s Division of Emergency Management to help deal with unexpected emergency measures surrounding the collapse.
The president has supported an investigation into the cause of the collapse, and on Wednesday, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which sent a team of scientists and engineers to the site, launched an investigation.
