The football community was shaken on June 7 by the announcement that Lionel Messi, widely regarded as one of the all-time greats in the sport, will be joining Major League Soccer (MLS) and playing for Inter Miami CF following his departure from Paris Saint-Germain.  The Argentine football star is set to become the newest addition to the star-studded roster of Major League Soccer. Despite rumored offers from Saudi Arabia and a potential return to Barcelona, Messi has decided to make his way to Miami, Florida in the US, for the concluding phase of his illustrious career. Messi’s Contract and Salary Detail at Inter Miami Messi was earning an estimated $45 million per year (net) during his time in Paris. However, it’s important to note that MLS has a strict salary cap and roster regulations in place to prevent excessive contracts with individual players. As a result, the specific details of the deal Messi could potentially secure in MLS would be subject to these regulations. The terms of his contract would need to follow the salary cap and roster rules set by the league. Read Mission completed: Man City beats Inter Milan to end wait for first Champions League title  According to reports, Messi has reached an agreement on a two-and-a-half-year contract with Inter Miami, with the inclusion of a 12-month option for 2026. This complex agreement, reportedly involving contributions from Apple and Adidas, has been planned to facilitate the move, benefitting all parties involved in the long term. The contract entails Messi receiving a base salary along with additional bonuses. Messi’s contract is reportedly valued at around $125 million to $150 million. MLS sponsors Apple and Adidas are said to be working on agreements that will be tied to the revenue Messi generates as a prominent figure in the league.  Additionally, there is a possibility of Messi being granted an ownership stake, similar to the arrangement given to David Beckham when he joined MLS. Read more: No homecoming for Messi as Barcelona again fails to do enough to lure him back When is Messi’s First Match with Inter Miami? The specific date of Lionel Messi’s debut in MLS with Inter Miami CF has not been officially announced at the moment. Various reports suggest different dates, but it is widely believed that Messi’s proposed debut could take place on July 21. However, alternative timeframes such as “later in July, at the earliest” or even “August” have also been mentioned. The MLS regular season will end on October 21 and playoffs will start from October 25. And the final game is set to take place on December 9. So, Messi might get a few matches in the regular season. However, July 21 is a significant date as Inter Miami will host Mexican club Cruz Azul  for the Leagues Cup. Another date to keep an eye on is July 19, as it marks the grand unveiling event: the 2023 MLS All-Star Game at DC United’s Audi Field. On this occasion, the MLS All-Star XI will face English Premier League team Arsenal in the highly anticipated annual showcase match. If Messi is not participating in this game, it is highly likely that he will be introduced to a thrilled crowd during a prime-time presentation. Read more: Lionel Messi picks MLS's Inter Miami in a move that stuns soccer after exit from Paris Saint-Germain What Kind of Impact Can Messi Make? To begin with, Inter Miami is expanding DRV PNK Stadium by adding approximately 2,500 to 3,000 seats. This development indicates that the capacity will likely increase to 22,000 spectators. Moreover, Miami Freedom Park is set to debut in March 2025. Just envision the spectacle of opening night with Messi in the starting lineup.

Tropical Storm Nicholas headed toward the Texas coast Monday, threatening to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and storm-battered Louisiana. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch was issued for the central portion of the Texas coast with much of the state’s coastline now under a tropical storm warning. Nicholas is expected to approach the middle Texas coast late Monday and could bring heavy rain that could cause flash floods and urban flooding. In a special advisory late Sunday, forecasters said the center of Nicholas had reformed, and the system strengthened. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 12 mph (19 kph). It was located off the coast of northeastern Mexico, and was on a forecast track to pass near the South Texas coast later Monday, then move onshore along the coast of south or central Texas by Monday evening. Nicholas over several days is expected to produce total rainfall of up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) in Texas and southwest Louisiana, with isolated maximum amounts of 20 inches (50 centimeters), across portions of coastal Texas beginning Sunday night through midweek. Read:At least 1 dead, 10 missing in landslide near Mexico City Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the state has placed rescue teams and resources in the Houston area and along the Texas Gulf Coast. “This is a storm that could leave heavy rain, as well as wind and probably flooding, in various different regions along the Gulf Coast. We urge you to listen to local weather alerts, heed local warnings,” Abbot said in a video message. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Sunday night declared a state of emergency ahead of the storm’s arrival in a state still recovering from Hurricane Ida and last year’s Hurricane Laura and historic flooding. “The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing. In this area heavy rain and flash flooding are possible. However, it is also likely that all of south Louisiana will see heavy rain this week, including areas recently affected by Hurricane Ida,” Edwards said. The storm was expected to bring the heaviest rainfall west of where Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana two weeks ago. Although forecasters did not expect Louisiana to suffer from strong winds again, meteorologist Bob Henson at Yale Climate Connections predicted rainfall could still plague places where the hurricane toppled homes, paralyzed electrical and water infrastructure and left at least 26 people dead. “There could be several inches of rain across southeast Louisiana, where Ida struck,” Henson said in an email. Across Louisiana, 140,198 customers — or about 6.3% of the state — remained without power on Sunday morning, according to the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The storm is projected to move slowly up the coastland which could dump torrential amounts of rain over several days, said meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana. “Heavy rain, flash flooding appears to be the biggest threat across our region,” he said. While Lake Charles received minimal impact from Ida, the city saw multiple wallops from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020, a winter storm in February as well as historic flooding this spring. “We are still a very battered city,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said. Read:Tropical Storm Mindy makes landfall on Florida Panhandle He said the city is taking the threat of the storm seriously, as it does all tropical systems. “Hope and prayer is not a good game plan,” Hunter said. In Cameron Parish in coastal Louisiana, Scott Trahan is still finishing repairs on his home damaged from last year’s Hurricane Laura that put about 2 feet of water in his house. He hopes to be finished by Christmas. He said many in his area have moved instead of rebuilding. “If you get your butt whipped about four times, you are not going to get back up again. You are going to go somewhere else,” Trahan said. Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said via Twitter that Nicholas is the 14th named storm of 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. Only 4 other years since 1966 have had 14 or more named storms by Sept. 12: 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2020.

Authorities searching for victims of a deadly collapse in Florida said Sunday they hope to conclude their painstaking work in the coming weeks as a team of first responders from Israel departed the site. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said 90 deaths have now been confirmed in last month’s collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside, up from 86 a day before. Among them are 71 bodies that have been identified, and their families have been notified, she said. Some 31 people remain listed as missing. The Miami-Dade Police Department said three young children were among those recently identified. Crews continued to search the remaining pile of rubble, peeling layer after layer of debris in search of bodies. The unrelenting search has resulted in the recovery of over 14 million pounds (about 6.4 million kilograms) of concrete and debris, Levine Cava said. Read:Death toll in Florida condo collapse now 78 Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said it was uncertain when recovery operations would be completed because it remains hard to know when the final body would be found. When the recovery phase began Wednesday, officials were hoping it could be done within three weeks. In an interview Sunday morning near the site, Cominsky said it might now be as few as two weeks, based on the current pace of work. “We were looking at a 14-day to 21-day timeframe,” he said, adding that the timeline remained “a sliding scale.” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett stressed the care that rescue workers are taking in peeling back layers of rubble in hopes of recovering not only bodies but also possessions of the victims. He said the work is so delicate that crews have found unbroken wine bottles amid the rubble. Read:8 more dead pulled from rubble of collapsed Florida condo “It doesn’t get any less difficult and finding victims, that experience doesn’t change for our search and rescue folks,” he said. “It takes a toll, but you’ve got to love the heart that they’re putting into this and we’re very grateful.” On Saturday night, members of the community walked along Collins Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare, to celebrate the crews that have come from across the country — and as far as Israel and Mexico — to help in the rescue, and now recovery, effort. The Israeli search and rescue team arrived in South Florida shortly after the building collapsed on June 24 and was heading home Sunday. Members of the crews that have been searching the site 24 hours a day since the collapse lined both sides of the street, shaking hands and bidding farewell to the Israeli team. The Israeli team joined other task forces from around the United States to assist first responders from Miami and Miami-Dade County, working in 12-hour shifts. They have searched through South Florida’s intense summer heat, and in pouring rain, pausing only when lightning was spotted nearby. They also paused operations as officials made plans to implode the still-standing portion of the condo tower on July 4. Read:Recovery workers vow not to let up in Florida condo collapse The Israeli team used blueprints of the building to create detailed 3D images of the disaster site to aid in the search. They also gathered information from families of the missing, many of who were Jewish, to build a room-by-room model laying out where people would have been sleeping during the pre-dawn collapse. Levina Cava said the memorial walk on Saturday night was “a beautiful moment.” She gave the keys to the county to the Israeli commander and colonel — her first two handed out as mayor. Four teams from Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania are still dedicated to the recovery effort, Cominsky said. Teams from Virginia, New Jersey and Ohio are preparing to leave. “To give you an answer when we feel we’ll recover everyone, I can’t give you an exact date,” the fire chief said. “We’re doing everything that we can — everything possible — until we feel that we’ve delayered every floor.”

Emergency workers gave up Wednesday on any hope of finding survivors in the collapsed Florida condo building, telling sobbing families that there was “no chance of life” in the rubble as crews shifted their efforts to recovering more remains. The announcement followed increasingly somber reports from emergency officials, who said they sought to prepare families for the worst. “At this point, we have truly exhausted every option available to us in the search-and-rescue mission,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference. “We have all asked God for a miracle, so the decision to transition from rescue to recovery is an extremely difficult one,” she said. Read:8 more dead pulled from rubble of collapsed Florida condo Eight more bodies were recovered Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 54, the mayor said. Thirty-three of the dead have been identified, and 86 people are still unaccounted for. Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah told families at a private briefing that crews would stop using rescue dogs and listening devices but would continue to search for their loved ones. “Our sole responsibility at this point is to bring closure,” he said as relatives cried in the background. Unlike some collapses that create W-shaped spaces where people can survive, a “pancake collapse” like the one in Surfside tends not to leave livable spaces, Jadallah said. “Where a pancake collapses, unfortunately it is a floor or a wall on top of a floor on top of a floor on top of a floor,” he said. “Typically, an individual has a specific amount of time in regards to lack of food, water and air. This collapse just doesn’t provide any of that sort.” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said he expected the recovery operation to take several more weeks. The formal transition was to take place at midnight. Hours before the official change of mission, rescue workers, their helmets held to their hearts and their boots covered in dust, joined local officials, rabbis and chaplains in a moment of silence. The rabbis and chaplains walked down a line of officials, many of them sobbing, and hugged them one by one. Read:Searchers at collapse site ‘not seeing anything positive’ A Miami-Dade fire helicopter flew over the site. As the ceremony neared its end, an accordion player unseen on a nearby tennis court played Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” which was followed by a piccolo playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Firefighters from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the federal government and elsewhere were also present. On a tall nearby fence, families and well-wishers had posted photos of the victims, supportive messages and flowers. Firefighters hung a banner atop the fence that read “Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Mourns With You.” Hope of finding survivors was briefly rekindled after workers demolished the remainder of the building on Sunday, allowing rescuers access to new areas of debris they hoped would contain “voids,” or open pockets with enough room for a person. Some of those voids did exist, mostly in the basement and the parking garage, but no survivors emerged. Instead, teams recovered more than a dozen additional victims. Because the building fell in the early morning hours, many residents were found dead in their beds. No one has been pulled out alive since the first hours after the 12-story Champlain Towers South building fell on June 24. Twice during the search, rescuers had to suspend the mission because of the instability of the remaining structure and the preparation for demolition. After initially hoping for miraculous rescues, families slowly braced themselves for the news that their relatives did not survive. “For some, what they’re telling us, it’s almost a sense of relief when they already know (that someone has died), and they can just start to put an end to that chapter and start to move on,” said Miami-Dade firefighter and paramedic Maggie Castro, who has updated families daily. Read:Florida condo collapse: Death toll climbs to 28, 117 still missing Authorities launched a grand jury investigation into the collapse, and at least six lawsuits have been filed by Champlain Towers families. The president of the neighboring Champlain Towers North condo association said engineers hired by the city arrived Tuesday to conduct three days of tests at the building, which has a similar design and was built around the same time as Champlain Towers South. “They are checking from one end of the building to the other, and everything is fine,” Naum Lusky told The Associated Press. Since the south building collapsed, he has insisted his tower is safe because his association kept up the maintenance and did not allow problems to fester.

The search for victims of the collapse of a Miami-area high-rise condominium reached its 14th day on Wednesday, with the death toll at three dozen, more than 100 people still unaccounted for and authorities sounding more and more grim. Crews on Tuesday dug through pulverized concrete where the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside once stood, filling buckets that were passed down a line to be emptied and then returned. The up-close look at the search, compliments of video released by the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department, came as eight more deaths were announced — the most for a single day since the search began. It also came as rain and wind from Tropical Storm Elsa disrupted the effort, though the storm was on track to make landfall far across the state. Read:Searchers at collapse site ‘not seeing anything positive’ Searchers have found no new signs of survivors, and although authorities said their mission was still geared toward finding people alive, they sounded increasingly somber. “Right now, we’re in search and rescue mode,” the county’s police director, Freddy Ramirez, said at a news conference Tuesday evening. He soon added: “Our primary goal right now is to bring closure to the families.” No one has been rescued from the site since the first hours after the building collapsed on June 24 when many of its residents were asleep. Searchers were still looking for any open spaces within the mounds of rubble where additional survivors might be found, said the county’s fire chief, Alan Cominsky. “Unfortunately, we are not seeing anything positive,” he said. Read:Florida condo collapse: Death toll climbs to 28, 117 still missing Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the families of the missing were preparing for news of “tragic loss.” She said President Joe Biden, who visited the area last week, called Tuesday to offer his continued support. “I think everybody will be ready when it’s time to move to the next phase,” she said. Reporters got their closest in-person look at the site Tuesday, though it was limited to the portion of the building that workers tore down Sunday after the initial collapse left it standing but dangerously unstable. A pile of shattered concrete and twisted steel stood about 30 feet (9 meters) high and spanned roughly half the length of a football field. A pair of backhoes pulled rubble off the pile, which blocked any view of the search effort. Severe weather from Elsa hindered search efforts to a degree. Lightning forced rescuers to pause their work for two hours early Tuesday, Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said. And winds of 20 mph (32 kph), with stronger gusts, hampered efforts to move heavy debris with cranes, officials said. Read:Search back on after rest of South Florida condo demolished However, the storm’s heaviest winds and rain would bypass Surfside and neighboring Miami as Elsa weakened along its path to an expected landfall somewhere between Tampa Bay and Florida’s Big Bend. Crews have removed 124 tons (112 metric tonnes) of debris from the site, Cominsky said. The debris was being sorted and stored in a warehouse as potential evidence in the investigation into why the building collapsed, officials said. Workers have been freed to search a broader area since the unstable remaining portion of the building was demolished.

A storm that has lashed the Caribbean and the Florida Keys with pounding rain and gusty winds and complicated the search for survivors in a deadly condominium collapse has strengthened into a hurricane. The National Weather Service said Tuesday that Hurricane Elsa was packing winds as high as 75 mph (121 kph) as it hurtled toward Florida’s northern Gulf Coast. The Category 1 storm is expected to make landfall between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday, somewhere between the Tampa Bay area and the Big Bend region. In addition to damaging winds and heavy rains, the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center warned of life-threatening storm surges, flooding and isolated tornadoes. A hurricane warning has been issued for a long stretch of coastline, from Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay to the Steinhatchee River in Florida’s Big Bend area. Landfall was expected somewhere in between. The Tampa area is highly vulnerable to storm surge because the offshore waters and Tampa Bay are quite shallow, experts say. Gov. Ron DeSantis said the area would take a hard hit from the storm overnight. Read:Tropical Storm Elsa moving across west Cuba, then to Florida Now is “not a time to joyride” because “we do have hazardous conditions out there,” DeSantis said at a news conference Tuesday. The storm is expected to make landfall between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Wednesday, he said. Still, on the barrier island beach towns along the Gulf Coast, it was largely business as usual with few shutters or plywood boards going up early Tuesday. Free sandbags were being handed out at several locations, and a limited number of storm shelters opened Tuesday morning in at least four counties around the Tampa Bay area, although no evacuations have been ordered. Nancy Brindley, 85, who lives in a seaside house built in 1923, said she has experienced 34 previous tropical cyclones and is not having shutters put on her windows. Her main concern is what will happen to sand on the adjacent beach and the dunes that protect her house and others. She’s staying through the storm. “The main concern here is, if it doesn’t speed up and decides to stall, there will be enormous erosion,” she said. Friends Chris Wirtz, 47, and Brendan Peregrine, 44, were staying put at a beachfront inn with their families. Both are from Tampa, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) across the bay and have been through storms many times. “Before we left, we knew it was coming,” Wirtz said. Others were taking no chances. Annie Jones, 51, has lived along the Gulf Coast her entire life. She was buying ice and food at a local grocery store in advance of the storm. “I’ve seen this happen over the years and I decided to load up,” Jones said. Read:Tropical Storm Elsa nears Cuba amid fears of flooding Across the Tampa Bay region that’s home to about 3.5 million people, events, government offices and schools were closing down early Tuesday in advance of the storm. Tampa International Airport shut down at 5 p.m. Duke Energy, the main electric utility in the Tampa Bay area, said in a statement it has about 3,000 employees, contractors, tree specialists and support personnel ready to respond to power outages in the storm’s aftermath. Additional crews are being brought in from other states served by Duke Energy. “We’re trained and prepared, and we want to ensure our customers are safe and prepared for any impacts from the storm,” said Todd Fountain, the utility’s Florida storm director. The fifth game of the Stanley Cup finals between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens, set for Wednesday night, will take place, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said. The Lightning lead the NHL’s championship series 3-1 and could clinch the title with a victory. Bands of rain reached Surfside on Florida’s Atlantic coast, soaking the rubble of the Champlain Towers South, which collapsed June 24, killing at least 36 people. Search and rescue crews have worked through rain in search of more than 100 others unaccounted for, although lightning forced rescuers to pause their work for two hours early Tuesday, officials said. Its core was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa. It was continuing to move to the north at 14 mph (about 23 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. DeSantis expanded a state of emergency to cover 33 counties. After Florida, forecasters predicted Elsa would hit coastal Georgia and South Carolina, portions of which were under a tropical storm warning. Read:Hurricane Elsa races toward Haiti amid fears of landslides Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency Tuesday affecting 92 counties in middle, south and southeast Georgia in preparation for the storm. Elsa’s westward shift spared the lower Florida Keys a direct hit, but the islands were still getting plenty of rain and wind Tuesday. Cuban officials evacuated 180,000 people against the possibility of heavy flooding from a storm that already battered several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. Elsa is the earliest fifth-named storm on record, said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.

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 Hurricane Elsa 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. Read:Florida condo collapse: Death toll climbs to 28, 117 still missing “We’re actively searching as aggressively as we can,” Miami-Dade County Fire Chief Alan Cominsky said at a news conference. But he added: “Unfortunately, we are not seeing anything positive. The key things — void spaces, living spaces — we’re not seeing anything like that.” Reporters got their closest look at the site Tuesday, though it was limited to the portion of the building that demolition workers tore down Sunday after the initial collapse left it standing but dangerously unstable. A pile of shattered concrete and twisted steel stood about 30 feet (9 meters) tall, topped by a couple of air conditioning units, and spanned roughly half the length of a football field. A pair of backhoes pulled rubble off the pile, which blocked any view of the search effort. While officials still call the efforts a search-and-rescue operation, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said families of those still missing are preparing for news of “tragic loss.” She said President Joe Biden, who visited the area last week, called Tuesday to offer his continued support. “I think everybody will be ready when it’s time to move to the next phase,” said Levine Cava, who stressed that crews would use the same care as they go through the rubble even after their focus shifts from searching for survivors to recovering the dead. Read:Search back on after rest of South Florida condo demolished “Really, you will not see a difference,” she said. “We will carefully search for bodies and belongings, and to catalog and respectfully deal with any remains that we find.” No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the collapse, which struck early on June 24, when many of the building’s residents were asleep. Officials announced Tuesday that teams had recovered eight additional bodies — the highest one-day total since the collapse. More than 100 people remain unaccounted for. Severe weather from Elsa threatened to hinder search efforts. Lightning forced rescuers to pause their work for two hours early Tuesday, Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Raide Jadallah said. And stiff winds of 20 mph (32 kph), with stronger gusts, hampered efforts to move heavy debris with cranes, officials said. Read:Florida Collapse: Demolition of condominium set; rescue work to resume after However, the storm’s heaviest winds and rain were expected to bypass Surfside and neighboring Miami as Elsa strengthened before making landfall somewhere between Tampa Bay and Florida’s Big Bend on a path across northern Florida. “Active search and rescue continued throughout the night, and these teams continue through extremely adverse and challenging conditions,” Levine Cava said. “Through the rain and through the wind, they have continued searching.” Crews have removed 124 tons (112 metric tonnes) of debris from the site, Cominsky said. The debris was being sorted and stored in a warehouse as potential evidence in the investigation into why the building collapsed, officials said. Workers have been freed to search a broader area since the weekend demolition of the unstable remaining portion of the condo building. Officials said that gave rescuers access to spaces that were previously closed off, including bedrooms where people were believed to be sleeping at the time of the disaster.

Rescuers were given the all-clear to resume work looking for victims at a collapsed South Florida condo building after demolition crews set off a string of explosives that brought down the last of the building in a plume of dust. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the Associated Press that the demolition went “exactly as planned” around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. Crews immediately began clearing some of the new debris so rescuers could start making their way into parts of the underground garage that is of particular interest. Once there, they were hoping to get a clearer picture of voids that may exist in the rubble and could possibly harbor the 121 people believed to be trapped under the fallen wing of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside that collapsed June 24. No one has been rescued alive since the first hours after the collapse. On Sunday, Miami-Dade police identified David Epstein, 58, as one of the 24 people known to have perished in the fallen tower. His remains were recovered Friday. Read:Florida Collapse: Demolition of condominium set; rescue work to resume after Shortly after the demolition, cranes were again in motion at the site, suggesting that crews were back in place in the wee hours of Monday morning to sift through the rubble from above and below. Rescuers are hoping the demolition will give them access for the first time to parts of the garage area. Once a new pathway into the initial rubble is secure, “we will go back to the debris pile, and we’ll begin our search and rescue efforts,” Miami-Dade Fire Chief Albert Cominsky said at a press conference several hours before the remaining wing of the residential high rise came tumbling down. During the demolition, a loud rat-at-tat of explosions echoed from the structure. Then the building began to fall, one floor after another, cascading into an explosion of dust. Plumes billowed into the air, as crowds watched the scene from afar. “It was picture perfect. Exactly what we were told would happen,” Levine Cava said in an interview shortly after the demolition. Levine Cava expressed relief that the search for victims can now continue, after being suspended on Saturday so workers could begin rigging the damaged but still-upright portion of the the partly-collapsed tower with explosives — a precarious operation that could have caused the structure to fail. “I feel relief because this building was unstable. The building was hampering our search efforts,” Levine Cava said. Some residents had pleaded to return to their homes one last time to retrieve belongings left in haste, but were denied. Others wondered about the pets left behind, even though officials said they found no signs of animals after making three final sweeps, including the use of drones to peer into the abandoned structure. Read:Collapse survivors escaped with their lives, but little else Approaching Tropical Storm Elsa has added urgency to the demolition plans with forecasts suggesting there could be strong winds in the area by Monday. President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Florida because of the storm, making federal aid possible. The latest forecasts have moved the storm westward, mostly sparing South Florida, but National Hurricane Center meteorologist Robert Molleda said the area could still feel effects. “We’re expecting primarily tropical storm force gusts,” Molleda said, referring to gusts above 40 mph (64 kph). The decision to demolish the remnants of the Surfside building came after concerns mounted that the damaged structure was at risk of falling, endangering the crews below and preventing them from operating in some areas. Parts of the remaining building shifted on Thursday, prompting a 15-hour suspension in the work. Authorities had gone door-to-door to advise nearby residents of the timing of the demolition, and to ask them to keep windows closed. They were told to stay inside until two hours after the blast to avoid the dust raised by the implosion. The method used for Sunday night’s demolition is called “energetic felling,” which uses small detonation devices and relies on the force of gravity. Levine Cava, speaking ahead of the demolition, said that should bring the building down in place, containing the collapse to the immediate surroundings so as to minimally disturb the existing mound of debris — where scores of people are believed to be trapped. Officials used tarps to visually mark the search area, in case new debris scattered unexpectedly. Read:Latest victims in condo tower collapse include 2 children State officials said they hired the BG Group, a general contractor based in Delray Beach, Florida, to lead the demolition. They did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how the firm was selected, but a contract for the project calls for the state to pay the company $935,000. A spokesperson for the state’s Division of Emergency Management said the company subcontracted with Maryland-based Controlled Demolition Inc., which experts say is among only a handful of companies in the U.S. that demolishes structures using explosives. The company was supposed to place explosives on the basement and lobby levels of the still-standing structure, according to the contract for the work. CDI is “probably one of the best” in the industry, said Steve Schwartz, a member of the National Demolition Association’s board of directors. He described the company’s president and owner, Mark Loizeaux, as “cool, calm and collected.” In implosions — using explosives to have a building fall in on itself — the charges are generally set off in rapid succession over a matter of seconds, said Scott Homrich, who heads the National Demolition Association and runs his own demolition company in Detroit, Michigan. Setting the explosives off at intervals serves to break up the building at the same time it’s coming down.

Susana Alvarez fled her home on the 10th floor of Champlain Towers South, escaping with her life and almost nothing else. “I don’t have anything,” said the 62-year-old survivor of the condominium building collapse just outside Miami. “I walked out with my pajamas and my phone.” The disaster that killed at least 18 people, with more than 140 still missing, also rendered dozens of people homeless. Many lost cars, too, buried in the building’s underground parking garage. Though most who managed to flee to safety lived in parts of the building that remain standing, they have little hope of returning to reclaim clothing, computers, jewelry and sentimental possessions they left behind. Read:Devastated condo community looks to Biden visit for comfort Officials said Thursday they’re making plans for the likely demolition of all parts of the building that didn’t collapse. The announcement came after search and rescue operations were paused for hours because of growing signs the structure was dangerously unstable. Alvarez is still dealing with the trauma. She hasn’t slept in a bed since the collapse a week ago. Instead she’s been sleeping in a chair, constantly thinking of the victims who couldn’t escape. She still hears the screams from that night. “I lost everything,” Alvarez said, “and it doesn’t mean anything to me.” Still, friends and even complete strangers have been helping replace what she’s lost. Friends she’s staying with outfitted her with new clothes and a computer. An eyeglass store refilled her prescription, even though she never called it in. And she got the last condo in a 16-unit building that was opened up rent-free to Surfside survivors for the month of July. It’s unclear exactly how many residents have been displaced, but those with insurance policies should recoup at least a portion of their losses. Victims also appear likely to get some money from the liability insurer for Champlain Towers South’s condominium association, which has at least four lawsuits pending related to the collapse. An attorney for James River Insurance Company wrote to the judge in one case this week that it plans to “voluntarily tender its entire limit” from the association’s policy toward resolving claims. An attached copy of the policy showed limits between $1 million and $2 million. Michael Capponi, the president of a Miami-area nonprofit that for the past decade has helped victims of disasters from hurricanes to wildfires in the U.S. and abroad, said he has personally dealt with 50 people who lost homes in the building. Read:Latest victims in condo tower collapse include 2 children Capponi’s organization, Global Empowerment Mission, has distributed roughly $75,000 in gift cards among surfside survivors, and he’s also working with hotel and condo owners to find places they can live for the next two months. Most people who have contacted his nonprofit for help lived in the part that is still standing but assume their homes and anything inside are a complete loss. “They are going to basically have to start all over again,” Capponi said. “Some of them don’t have insurance, and they’ve lost everything they worked all their lives for.” Raysa Rodriguez, a retired postal worker who lived at Champlain Towers South for 17 years and was close to paying off her mortgage, described in a lawsuit she filed against the condominium association how crashing sounds roused her from bed the night of the collapse. “The building swayed like a sheet of paper. ... I ran to the balcony. I (opened) the doors and a wall of dust hit me,” she said in the filing. Rodriguez helped neighbors escape to a second-floor balcony where firefighters helped them to the ground. Now she has moved in with family members and assumes what’s left of the building will be torn down with no chance to recover belongings. “She lived there for a long time,” said Adam Schwartzbaum, her attorney, “and she was planning to live there for the rest of her life.” Ryan Logan, the American Red Cross’ regional disaster officer for south Florida, said the organization has been helping about 18 families, and some of them have been looking for ways they can help other victims. Read:Florida officials pledge multiple probes into condo collapse “These folks that we are serving, who we know they are having the worst experience of their lives, are turning around and asking you what can they do to serve,” Logan said. “It’s nothing short of amazing.” Gabriel Nir narrowly escaped a first-floor apartment with his mother and 15-year-old sister. The family had just moved in six months ago. Nir, a recent college graduate, was living there while he looked for a job and considered medical school. For now they are staying at a nearby hotel, the floor of their room cluttered with items donated by friends and strangers. They have no luggage. Their car was destroyed in the building’s garage. But all the material possessions they lost can be replaced, he said. “I’m just grateful I made it out alive with my family,” Nir said.

As the search for survivors of a Florida condo collapse enters its second week, rescue crews and relatives of those still missing are scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden Thursday, in a visit many are hoping will provide some measure of comfort to a devastated community. Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to thank first responders and search and rescue teams. They also plan to meet with the families of victims, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. The president’s visit comes a week after Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium building in Surfside, suddenly came crashing down, leaving a pancaked rubble. Search crews going through the ruins found the remains of six people Wednesday, bringing the number of confirmed dead to 18. The number of residents unaccounted for stands at 145. Read:Latest victims in condo tower collapse include 2 children Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez said he hopes Biden’s visit will be a morale booster for the entire community. “We’ve had several challenges from weather, sorrow, pain. And I think that the president coming will bring some unity here for our community, support, like our governor, our mayor, all of us together,” he said. Psaki said the president and first lady also want to make sure that state and local officials have the resources and support they need under an emergency declaration approved by Biden for Miami-Dade. She emphasized Wednesday that the White House is being careful to coordinate with officials on the ground to ensure that Biden’s visit doesn’t do anything to “pull away” from the ongoing search and rescue effort. State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis said he hopes to emphasize to Biden that there is a need for mental health resources to treat rescue workers for post-traumatic stress disorder. “These guys are so blindly focused on the mission of saving lives, and unfortunately they see things they can’t unsee,” Patronis said. “We want to make sure that when they ultimately do go home, that we’re giving them the strength … to be able to get back to work without fear of nightmares and challenges.” Read:Florida officials pledge multiple probes into condo collapse Since the tragedy, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, a Democrat, have projected a united and cooperative front as they respond to the crisis. Previously, they had sometimes sparred over how best to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, with clashes over wearing masks and other measures to control the pandemic. But no signs of partisanship have been evident in Surfside. DeSantis has spoken appreciatively of the aid coming from Washington, even commending the Biden administration for “stepping up to the plate.” “We really appreciate having the support of the president,” DeSantis said at a Friday news conference in Surfside -- although hours before, he had blasted President Joe Biden’s border policies during an earlier press conference in the state’s Panhandle. DeSantis, who is up for reelection next year, is said to be exploring a run for the presidency in 2024. Among the remains found Wednesday were those of a mother and her two daughters, ages 4 and 10, a loss that Cava called “too great to bear.” Read:‘Our backyard’: Tragedy strikes home for Miami-Dade rescuers Miami-Dade police identified the children as 10-year-old Lucia Guara and 4-year-old Emma Guara, and their mother as 42-year-old Anaely Rodriguez. The remains of their father, Marcus Guara, 52, were pulled from the rubble Saturday and identified Monday. The cause of the collapse is under investigation. A 2018 engineering report found that the building’s ground-floor pool deck was resting on a concrete slab that had “major structural damage” and needed extensive repairs. The report also found “abundant cracking” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage. Just two months before the building came down, the president of its board wrote a letter to residents saying that structural problems identified in the 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and that major repairs would cost at least $15.5 million. With bids for the work still pending, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.