"We've come together as a community," Surfside, Florida, business owner says after condo collapse
CBSN
Emily Sands didn't hesitate to welcome anyone affected by the deadly building collapse in Surfside, Florida, to her local hair salon after the 12-story condominium suddenly crashed to the ground last month.
"We've come together as a community. We have opened our doors to have a safe space for the victims that don't have a safe space to go right now," Sands told CBSN anchor Anne-Marie Green. "Being that we're a hair salon, as many women know, you get very close to your stylist, and it's a place that you come to unwind and talk and let loose a little bit and have a therapist in the chair. So we didn't want to close our doors to those people that needed a place to go." Sands' salon, called Lahh Salon, also partnered with The American Red Cross to give victims free haircuts, blow drys, refreshments, pajamas and toiletries. And the business is supporting first responders by keeping them well fed as they continued their work.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.