Officials managing the Champlain Towers South collapse in Surfside, Florida have revised the number of people unaccounted for down to 126, from 145, after they were able to determine that some of the people listed were duplicate names, the Associated Press reports.
After initially having 190 people listed as missing in the days after the disaster, authorities were able to lower the number by locating people at other locations and determining some were not in their condos when the building collapsed.
Still, with a death toll currently at 22 and a pile of rubble to sift through, the number of fatalities is expected to increase significantly in coming days as workers uncover bodies. The effort will likely need to slow as Hurricane Elsa approaches the East Coast, making the site unstable and dangerous for rescue workers.
“Our top priority is search and rescue. We will take no action that will jeopardize our search-and-rescue efforts,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. “The building poses a threat to public health and safety.”