‘Zero Chance of Survival’: Search for Survivors in Condo Collapse Is Ending

Nobody had been found alive since immediately after the Florida building crumbled almost two weeks ago, killing at least 54. Still, officials had resisted abandoning the search-and-rescue effort.

SURFSIDE, Fla. — Officials acknowledged on Wednesday that there was “zero chance” of finding any survivors in the pulverized steel and smashed concrete of what had been Champlain Towers South and said they would shift their focus to recovering the victims’ remains. There had been no signs of life since the hours immediately after the building in Surfside, Fla., tumbled down early on the morning of June 24. Still, officials had resisted abandoning a search-and-rescue effort, even as the likelihood of anyone being found alive diminished each day. The death toll climbed on Wednesday to 54, making it one of the deadliest structural collapses in United States history. The decision to change course, ending the rescue effort at midnight on Wednesday, came as 86 people were still classified as unaccounted for. Yet the move had already appeared to many as a grim inevitability.