From the very moment that Champlain Tower fell in Surfside, Florida, the clock was ticking.
The search and rescue efforts looked fairly familiar, even though the situation was not. Instead of combing through the rubble of a building toppled by an earthquake or tornado, first responders were picking away at a seemingly random catastrophe.
The knowledge gleaned from those other sorts of efforts gave us a timeline, at least, with many news outlets reporting that it isn’t terribly uncommon to find trapped victims 7 or so days after such an incident.
Now, on the crucial 7th day, work has been halted.
Rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed Florida condominium building were halted Thursday out of concern about the stability of the remaining structure after crews noticed widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column, officials said.
The stoppage that began shortly after 2 a.m. threatened to keep search teams off the rubble pile for an unknown period and dim hopes for finding anyone alive in the debris a week after the tower came down.
The rescue operations were called off on the same day that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the devastated community.
The collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing. Hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel have painstakingly searched the pancaked rubble for potential signs of life, but no one has been rescued since the first hours after the collapse.
There are currently less than 20 people confirmed dead in the incident, and over 140 still unaccounted for.
