(27 Jun 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4332542
Families remained stuck between waning hopes and widening fears on Sunday, two days after the collapse of a 12-storey condominium near Miami.
At least five people were killed and more than 150 people remained unaccounted for as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside.
The building was home to an international mix of foreign retirees, South American immigrants and Orthodox Jews, all with anxious loved ones awaiting news.
Mike Noriega's mother woke him up around 0200 on Thursday after the condominium collapsed.
His 92-year-old grandmother, Hilda, lived on the sixth floor.
Noriega rushed to the site of the collapse and says he couldn't fathom what he saw.
"It was so hard to process because it was like something that's like something you're supposed to see in a movie, but you're never supposed to see in reality," the 36-year-old said.
Hilda Noriega had called Champlain Towers home for more than 20 years after building a life with her husband and raising a family after coming to the US from Cuba in 1960.
But six years after her husband died, relatives said she was ready to leave, putting her condo up for sale with the intention of moving in with her son and his family.
The family described Hilda as a fiercely independent and vivacious retiree - in Mike's word's: "92 years old going on 62."
Visiting the site, they stumbled across mementoes among the debris that bore witness to her life on the sixth floor in Champlain Towers South.
An old picture of her with her late husband and their infant son, and a birthday card friends sent two weeks earlier with the acronym "ESM", Spanish for "hand-delivered," on the envelope.
"I mean, what are the chances that would happen?" Noreiga said.
The Noriega family found comfort in those signs they found.
"I just feel like it's really God's way of comforting us, to say, either way, whatever happened with your grandmother, she's OK."
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
