This is what we know about those missing in the Miami condo collapse

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Search and rescue teams have been feverishly scouring the site near Miami since shortly after 55 of the building’s 136 units fell at about 1:30 a.m.

Here’s what we know about the missing.

The sister and brother-in-law of Paraguay’s first lady, Silvana López Moreira, live with their three children on the 10th floor of the partially collapsed building, and Paraguay’s ministry of external relations has not been able to locate the family, the ministry told CNN en Español.

A total of six Paraguayans are unaccounted for, the ministry tweeted.

Nine Argentines, including a couple and their daughter

Argentines Andrés Galfrascoli, 45, his partner Fabián Nuñez, 55, and their daughter, Sofía Galfrascoli Núñez, 6, are among the missing, according to a friend.

The three were on vacation in Florida, staying at the condo of a friend, Nicolás Fernández.

Fernández told CNN en Español he spent time with the couple Wednesday night and made plans to meet up Thursday morning.

“We don’t know anything, we don’t have any closure and that’s what hurts,” Fernández told CNN.

Fernández has looked for his friends in local hospitals with no luck.

Nine Argentines were missing as of Thursday afternoon, the country’s consulate in Miami said on Twitter.

Venezuelans missing

Brian Fincheltub, Venezuela’s consular affairs director, tweeted the consulate has identified four of its citizens who are not accounted for and who were believed to be in the building.

Jewish community members missing, rabbi says

Some members from the The Shul of Bal Harbour synagogue are among the 99 people unaccounted for, Rabbi Sholom Lipskar told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

“This is something that transcends our capacity for understanding,” Lipskar said about the collapse. “It’s a reality, we accept it and we have to learn as we do in our culture of resilience to move forward.”

The outpouring of support has been unprecedented, Lipskar said.

“There are way more volunteers than we can use. Our synagogue big hall, which is a giant space, is filled with blankets, pillows, microwave ovens, chargers, food. It is an extraordinary outpouring and it’s real and it’s sincere,” he said.

“The only thing that helps in these times is kindness and empathy and togetherness, because you can’t take away the reality,” Lipskar said.

For each family member waiting for news from a loved one, there are about five or six community members with them, giving support.

Uruguayan citizens missing

Three Uruguayan citizens are among the missing, according to the consulate in Miami.

The consulate is in contact with local authorities and with the families of the people missing, said Consul General Eduardo Bouzout.

“The relatives are very concerned, of course, because they have not been able to contact them since they have knowledge of this tragic collapse,” said Bouzout in audio shared by the consulate with CNN.

Missing mother and grandmother

A woman who said creaking noises woke her up in the building the night before the collapse is missing, her son, Pablo Rodriguez, said.

Both his mother and grandmother were in the section that collapsed first, and the family hasn’t heard from them, Rodriguez told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

“You always hold out hope,” he said. “Until we definitively know, we are trying to stay hopeful. But after seeing the video of the collapse it’s increasingly difficult, because they were in that section that was pancaked in, in the first section that fell in, and then the other building fell on top of it, so it’s not easy to watch.”

Rodriguez said he and his mother didn’t really think anything about the creaking noise.

“It was just a comment she made offhand, that’s why she woke up, and then she wasn’t able to go back to sleep afterwards — but now in hindsight, you always wonder,” he said.

The family is still holding out hope for good news, Rodriguez said.

“We are praying for a miracle, but at the same time trying to be as realistic about it as possible,” he said. “Until we definitely know, there is hope. It’s just dwindling by the minute.”

Judy Spiegel

Kevin Spiegel, who lived in Champlain Towers with his wife, Judy, said he was on a business trip in California when the building collapsed.

When he woke up in the middle of the night, he had an emergency notice on his phone, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and he notified the rest of his family.

“We’re very hopeful that the community here will be able to find our loved ones,” said Josh Spiegel, Judy’s son, who lives in Orlando.

“My mom is an absolutely amazing person,” Josh Spiegel said. “She’s a fighter, and she fights for every single one of us, and we won’t stop … fighting until we find her,” he said.

“We have a lot of hope that Judy is still alive, and still there,” said Kevin Spiegel. “She’s an amazing person.”

CNN’s Ana Zuniga, Melissa Alonso, Jamiel Lynch, Abel Alvarado and Valentina Moreira contributed to this report.





Source : Nbcnewyork