The mayor of the town of Surfside said this weekend that he would like to temporarily evacuate residents from the Champlain Towers North building in order to give engineers time to check the safety of its structure.
“People have asked me if their building is safe, the answer is ‘yes your building is probably safe’ but when asked about that building, knowing this building (Champlain Towers South) fell down, I can’t answer the same way,” Mayor Charles Burkett said.
The mayor said he has discussed temporarily evacuating residents with Senator Rick Scott and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
“That building has the same design and the same builder, probably the same materials, “ Burkett said.
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Burkett said an evacuation would be “out of an abundance of caution,” to ensure the safety of the structure.
Rescuers used both heavy equipment and their own hands to comb through the wreckage of the collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium in an increasingly desperate search for survivors as 152 people remained unaccounted for and the death toll stood at four.
Burkett said a decision on the temporary evacuation order for the Champlain Towers North could be made as early as Saturday.
