Death Toll Climbs To 16 In The Surfside Condo Collapse, With 147 Missing

Updated June 30, 2021 at 1:24 PM ET

The bodies of four more victims have been recovered from the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., bringing the death toll from last week's partial collapse to 16.

Authorities leading the rescue and recovery operation said Wednesday that 147 victims remain missing or unaccounted for.

Ray Jadallah, the assistant fire chief of Miami-Dade County, told family members at a morning briefing that the four bodies were discovered on Tuesday night, officials said.

Rescue crews are now in their seventh day of around-the-clock searching of the massive pile of rubble left behind by last Thursday's partial collapse of the 12-story-tall building. Thursday was also the last day crews pulled anyone from rubble alive.

Authorities in Florida said that rescuers would continue the search for victims.

"Rest assured those folks are going to be working on that pile, and it's not going to stop, and they're going to get answers one way or another," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday.

Officials have not yet released names for all 16 people who have been confirmed dead, but earlier in the day they issued one more: 92-year-old Hilda Noriega. Miami-Dade Police said her body had been recovered on Tuesday.

"The Noriega's have lost the 'heart and soul' and 'matriarch' of their family, but will get through this time by embracing the unconditional love Hilda was known for," read a statement from the family shared by the city of North Bay Village in Florida.

Search teams say they have so far removed more than 3 million pounds of wreckage and debris from the site of the collapse.

The president and first lady are scheduled to visit the site on Thursday. [Copyright 2021 NPR]