Photos: Death toll rises at collapsed condo in Florida
Pallbearers roll two of three caskets to the hearse after the funeral for Anaely Rodriguez, her husband Marcus Guara and their daughters Lucia Guara and Emma Guara at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Miami Beach, Fla. The family died in the partially collapsed 13-story Champlain Towers South condo in Surfside, Fla.
(Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
By ROBERT ST. JOHN | Senior Photo Editor, TIMES WIRE SERVICES
Officials overseeing the search at the site of the Florida condominium collapse sounded increasingly somber Tuesday about the prospects for finding anyone alive, saying they have detected no new signs of life in the rubble as the death toll climbed to 36.
Crews in yellow helmets and blue jumpsuits searched the debris for a 13th day while wind and rain from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Elsa, which later strengthened into a hurricane, complicated their efforts. Video released by the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department showed workers lugging pickaxes and power saws through piles of concrete rubble barbed with snapped steel rebar. Other searchers could be seen digging with gloved hands through pulverized concrete and dumping shovels of debris into large buckets.
Search and rescue workers continued to look for open spaces where people might be found alive nearly two weeks after the disaster struck at the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside.
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Robert St. John |Senior Photo Editor
Robert St. John joined the Los Angeles Times in 1998 as a photo assignment editor for the California section. He came to The Times after four years at the Detroit Free Press, where he was deputy director of photography.