At least 159 missing after partial building collapse near Miami

Jim McGuinness, the town of Surfside, Florida’s building official, said at a meeting Friday that the town was awaiting a 40-year certification inspection report from Champlain Towers South before it collapsed.

McGuinness said he expects requirements for the recertification of buildings to change in light of the disaster. He said he believes the mandated time period for recertification will be shortened to 20- or 30-year periods. 

McGuinness said he was personally on the condo’s roof only 14 hours before it collapsed as part of a secondary inspection, though he said there was no inordinate amount of “equipment or materials or anything on the roof that caught my building official’s eye that would make me alarmed as to this place collapsing.” 

He said the building had an in-progress roofing permit, “which was going on very, very well – great professional roofers.”

“I have two words for the cause of this: Under investigation,” McGuinness said.

A trauma surgeon with the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, Dr. Howard Lieberman, told CNN that rescue crews searching through the Surfside collapse site yesterday “did hear some tapping, there was some noise,” adding that the tapping kept up for a while and then, over the course of the day, “dissipated.”

However, Lieberman said crews are not giving up hope.

The search effort, Lieberman said, has been very emotional, as team find personal effects in the rubble.

“We're seeing stuffed animals, teddy bears, boxed of diapers, a child's bunk bed, and we're finding a lot of pictures, family pictures, and it's, it's a little bit more emotional than going somewhere, where you know there's no one, let's say for a hurricane where they had enough warning and they had evacuation time and they got out," the trauma surgeon said.

Bettina Obias told CNN that her aunt and uncle Maria and Claudio Bonnefoy are missing in the Surfside building collapse. 

Obias told CNN on Friday that her aunt and uncle lived on the 10th floor of the building. Claudio was a retired United Nations legal counsel and a relative of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. Maria worked as an International Monetary Fund budget official. 

Obias said when she learned that the building her family lived in collapsed yesterday, she quickly took an Uber to the site.

"As soon as I saw this, I fell apart pretty much," said Obias. "When I saw this, I knew that they were gone."

Obias said she is still holding on to a sliver of hope that someone missing in the collapse is still alive.

"If it's not my aunt or uncle, I hope it's somebody's father or son," she said 

Kobi Karp, an architect and Miami resident, told CNN that it will take investigators months to figure out what caused the collapse of the Champlain Towers condo building in Surfside, Florida.

Forensic engineering will need to be done to determine the cause, Karp said.

He said that for part of the building to collapse while the other stood is a "mystery."

Karp said the building is not that old, having been built in 1981. He pointed out that there are many art deco buildings in south Florida that were built in the 1920s and 30s that are still standing.

Structural engineer Kit Miyamoto also spoke to CNN Friday night about the possible causes for the collapse.

He said it could be corrosion of the metal inside the column, settlement or sinking of one area of ground at a different rate than others, or a combination of different factors.

Miyamoto pointed out that even in places like California where big earthquakes are common, collapses such as this are extremely rare.

Karp echoed Miyamoto's sentiments saying, "At the end of the day for this to crash like this is a very unique and special situation." 

Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said they are bringing in heavy equipment such as cranes and other machinery to strategically help move debris. 

Search and rescue crews are using sonar equipment, dogs and video cameras to help search through the debris, he said at a news conference Friday night, with the main focus being underneath from the parking garage.

Cominsky said the heavy equipment is a strategic process and extremely difficult. They look for areas of void where there could be patient survivability and use the equipment to help move the debris.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the rescue efforts in Surfside will continue through the evening as 159 remain unaccounted for following the condo collapse.

Cava added: "We're here, we'll continue, and please stand by us. Stand by us, as we stand by the families."

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Officials are providing an update on the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida.

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the numbers of those unaccounted for remains the same: 159 people are unaccounted for and four have been confirmed dead.

“The world is watching and the world is caring about what is happening right here in Surfside in Miami-Dade County,” the mayor said thanking those from around the state and country who have offered help.

Reporting from CNN's Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report.

Ronit Felszer and Carlos Naibryf say their son Ilan Naibryf is missing in the collapse.

Ilan and his girlfriend were in town for a funeral and staying in the condo at an apartment her family had, the parents told CNN this evening. 

Felszer said she last spoke to her son on Wednesday morning. 

When asked to describe her son, Felszer said they are using the term “is” not “was.”

Describing him as a “loyal friend and a passionate, good, kind, generous young man,” Felszer said he is turning 22 in September and due to graduate from the University of Chicago as a physics major next May.

Carlos said that as family members, they aren’t receiving updates that they are hoping for, with names and more information, but understand the information they seek is not something authorities have to give.

“We’re hopeful. We have faith, but it’s difficult, it’s very difficult,” she said.

The school attended by the boy pulled alive from the rubble of the Champlain Towers collapse in Surfside said they are praying for his recovery in a post on social media Friday.

"We ask that you please keep Jonah, his family and all those affected in your prayers as search and rescue efforts continue. The family has asked to please respect their privacy at this time," the statement said.