Final Miami collapse death toll expected to be less than 100

By AP 13 July 2021, 9:15 pm

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Crews work in the rubble of the Champlain Towers South building, as removal and recovery work continues at the site of the partially collapsed condo building, on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, in Surfside, Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Exhausted crews are nearing the end of their search for victims of a Miami-area condominium tower collapse as the death toll reaches 95, with just a handful of people still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava says at a news conference that the number of people considered missing has dwindled as authorities work to identify everyone connected to the building.

The mayor says 14 people remain unaccounted for, which includes 10 victims whose bodies have been recovered but not yet identified — leaving potentially four more victims to be found.

“It’s a scientific, methodical process to identify human remains. As we’ve said, this work is becoming more difficult with the passage of time,” Levine Cava says, adding that it is “truly a fluid situation.”

Of the 14 people considered not accounted for, the mayor says 12 are the subject of missing persons reports and that detectives are trying to verify information about the other two.

At one point after the building collapsed almost three weeks ago, more than 150 people were thought to be missing.