#Florida condo death toll hits 32 as storm threatens search

Four more bodies have been pulled from the rubble of the collapsed Florida condominium building, pushing the confirmed death toll to 32, officials announced Tuesday.

Family members were told about the additional deaths during a closed-door briefing in the morning, fire officials said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed the latest tally at a press conference at the site, which is still under threat from Tropical Storm Elsa.

Cava said that only 26 of the 32 now confirmed dead have so far been formally identified.

She also stressed that authorities have only been able to confirm that 70 of the 113 people still unaccounted for were definitely in the Champlain Towers South building when it first partially collapsed 13 days ago.

“The waiting is unbearable,” the mayor said of the many families still awaiting news on their missing loved ones.

She said rescue teams would remain searching for potential survivors even with “extremely adverse and challenging conditions” from the tropical storm that has sparked a state of emergency throughout much of the Sunshine State.

“Through the rain and through the wind, they have continued searching,” she said of the heroic crews.

Workers only recently temporarily halted their efforts due to lightning strikes, which she said was mandated by law.

Bands of rain were expected at the site as Elsa strengthened, with the potential for the storm to become a hurricane again before it makes landfall somewhere between Tampa Bay and Florida’s Big Bend late Tuesday into Wednesday and crossing northern Florida.

Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said workers have removed 5.5 million pounds of debris from the pile so far.

Despite the 13-day operation, no one has been pulled out alive so far from the site after the first few hours of digging since the partial collapse in the early hours of June 24. Still, Cava insisted Monday that it is a “rescue” operation and not a “recovery.

“There is hope there are voids to continue the search and rescue operation,” she said.

With Post Wires