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Surfside condo collapse: Death toll rises to 64

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Surfside condo collapse The town of Surfside continues to be the focus of the recovery efforts as crews sift through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condo. (Marta Lavandier/Associated Press )
By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

SURFSIDE, Fla. — The death toll associated with the partial collapse last month of a 12-story condo building in Surfside has risen to 64, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Thursday.

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Levine Cava said four additional bodies were recovered Thursday afternoon. Forty bodies have been identified, 200 people have been accounted for, and 76 people remain unaccounted for.

Update 7:23 p.m. EDT July 8: Officials with the Miami-Dade Police Department identified five more victims from the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside: Juan Alberto Mora Jr., 32; Andrea Cattarossi, 56; Ruslan Manashirov, 36; Harold Rosenberg, 52; and Gloria Machado, 51.

Mora was a Loyola University and Belen Jesuit Preparatory School graduate. He lived in Chicago but was visiting his parents, who lived in Champlain Towers South, the Miami Herald reported.

Original report: Thursday afternoon’s update, combined with earlier figures released at a morning news conference, means that 10 bodies have been recovered in the past 24 hours.

“The work continues with all speed and urgency,” Levine Cava told reporters. “We are working around the clock to recover victims and to bring closure to the families as fast as we possibly can.”

Levine Cava said rabbis have been embedded with rescue workers to make sure any bodies found are treated in a manner consistent with Judaism’s guidelines, the Miami Herald reported. Among Surfside’s population of just under 6,000 are around 2,500 of the Jewish faith.

The Rev. Juan Sosa of St. Joseph Catholic Church met with other spiritual leaders at the collapse site, according to The Associated Press.

“I’m hoping that (the families) have some closure as we continue to pray for them,” Sosa said.

“Every victim that we recover is handled with extreme care and compassion,” Levine Cava told reporters.

One victim identified Thursday was Gary Cohen, 58, a doctor from Birmingham, Alabama. He was spending the night at Champlain Towers South with his brother, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Brad Cohen, the Herald reported. Brad Cohen’s wife and 12-year-old daughter were sleeping in Miami Beach, the newspaper reported. The family was in South Florida visiting the brothers’ father, who lives in Boynton Beach, according to the Herald.

The cause of the collapse remains under investigation. At least six lawsuits have so far been filed by Champlain Towers families.


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