Many feared dead in Miami condo collapse – National & International News – THU 24Jun2021

Many feared dead in Miami condo collapse. CDC extends eviction ban till July 31. Hundreds of children’s graves found at second Indian school in Canada.

NATIONAL NEWS

Many feared dead in Miami condo collapse

One wing of a seaside condo building in Surfside, FL, (near Miami) collapsed last night at around 1:30am. The collapse destroyed about half of the building’s 130 units. Miami-Dade police confirmed that at least one person is dead.

By mid-morning, rescuers had pulled about 35 people from the rubble alive. But rescue workers fear that many more may have died. It’s not clear how many were in the building when the collapse occurred, but a building manager believes that it was substantially full. At present, about 100 people believed to have been in the building are still unaccounted for.

Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue is bringing in equipment to improve their chances of rescuing more people. But as hours go by, hopes are fading.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said, “The building is literally pancaked. That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive”.

No one has indicated what may have caused the collapse. Some work was being done on the roof, but it’s not clear whether this could have been the cause. One resident of the building mentioned that he had raised concerns some years ago that nearby construction was damaging the 40-year-old building.

At the time of the collapse, a resident from a nearby building heard a loud boom that shook her building. Others in the affected building also described the structure shuddering and what sounded to them like an immense thunder clap. It was several minutes before the dust had cleared enough to reveal the devastation.

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CDC extends eviction ban till July 31

The CDC has extended the eviction ban from June 30 until July 31, implying that this would be the final extension. The agency hopes to give states more time to distribute $50 billion in federal rent relief funds to renters who need it. Congress released these funds to the states who in turn handed it over to a patchwork of more than 300 agencies across the country.

In some areas, this system has worked well. In other areas, caps on payments, stringent qualifying requirements and other red tape have slowed payments down. Poor communication by some agencies has also led some renters to wrongly believe that they didn’t qualify.

While many have successfully accessed funds and paid off back-due rent, recent figures indicate that more than 7 million people have not been able to do so.

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To learn more about available rental assistance in Mississippi, click here (opens in new tab).

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Hundreds of children’s graves found at second Indian school in Canada

Just weeks after researchers found about 215 children’s graves at an Indian boarding school in British Columbia, ground penetrating radar surveys have identified hundreds of unmarked children’s graves at similar school in Saskatchewan. Members of the Cowessess First Nation group, who commissioned the new study, did not specify exactly how many graves there were. The group will hold a news conference today with further details.

During the 19th century and well into the 20th, government and religious authorities operated hundreds of boarding schools for Native American children in both Canada and the US. The children would be taken from their parents, forced to convert to Christianity, and forbidden from speaking their native languages.

Earlier this week, US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, herself a member of the Pueblo tribe, announced a review of similar schools in the US. This review will identify the sites of the schools, locate possible burials, and restore the students’ identities and tribal affiliations. 

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