The search and rescue efforts at the collapsed Surfside, Florida, apartment complex have shifted to a recovery effort as 86 people remain unaccounted for, officials said Wednesday.
"It is with profound sadness that this afternoon I'm able to share that we made the extremely difficult decision to transition from operation search and rescue to recovery," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a press briefing Wednesday evening, on the 14th day of the search.
The emergency crews had "truly exhausted every option available to us in the search and rescue mission," the mayor said, and noted that the families of those still missing had been informed of the decision to transition to a recovery effort and "help to bring closure."
Several engineering and medical factors went into the decision, including the "pancake" nature of the collapse, "which gives you the lowest probability of survivability," Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah said during the briefing.
The fact that rescuers were finding human remains in the rubble was another factor, he said.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex's 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. Since then, hundreds of first responders have been carefully combing through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors.
Rescue crews found eight additional victims in the rubble Wednesday, raising the death toll to 54, Levine Cava said Wednesday evening.