‘I'm Hopeful That We'll Find People Alive Under All This Rubble' Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett On Condo Collapse Search & Rescue

By Brooke Shafer, CBS Miami

June 26, 2021

As heavy machinery begins to clear away debris at the site of a collapsed building at Champlain Towers South in Surfside, the town’s mayor is hopeful that some who had been in the building survived.

“I’m hopeful that we’ll find people alive under all this rubble and that’s what we’re going to do. We owe it to the families. "We’re going to apply the resources that we have. We have no limit on resources, so we’re really good there. We just have to get those resources there and continue to work and we’re doing that,” said Mayor Charles Burkett.

“We are absolutely hopeful,” he added. “We’ve got families that are depending on us. That’s why we’re here, 24 hours a day, we’re non-stop. All of us aren’t getting much sleep, but that’s not the point. The point is, we’ve got to pull as many people out of that pile of rubble as we can.”

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