A Delicate Decision: When to End Search for Any Florida Condo Survivors

Even as officials and rescue workers pledge hope, however slim, that life could be found within the voids of the rubble of the Champlain Towers South condominium complex near Miami, the language around the tragedy has subtly begun to shift into the past tense.

Mourners paying their respects at makeshift memorials near the cordoned-off site have begun to speak of the lost, while local and federal officials are publicly asking for, as Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week, a little bit of luck, prayers and some miracles.

“They know that the chances are, as each day goes by, diminished slightly,” President Biden said of the families of the missing after meeting with them on Thursday.

Federal, state and local officials said they were still committed to continuing the search-and-rescue effort in Surfside, Fla., and they have mostly declined to answer questions about when and how the search might shift to recovery. A spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was not that agency’s call. The Florida Division of Emergency Management referred all questions to the county. And officials with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue did not respond to a list of questions about how any change to recovery would be decided.