SURFSIDE, FLA. (WSVN) - With the possibility of Hurricane Elsa heading towards South Florida, local leaders are planning ahead on how to handle the situation if the storm impacts the Surfside condo building collapse site.
The National Weather Service is at the site as of Friday morning as Elsa strengthened into a hurricane.
“We’ve ordered our Department of Emergency Management to start preparing a potential State of Emergency, so I’m going to be working on that today,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “It is possible that we could see tropical force winds as early as Sunday night in southern Florida, so we’re actively monitoring the situation like we always would do with these storms, but given what we’re doing on this site, we’re also paying special attention to any impacts that could happen here in Northeast Miami-Dade County.”
South Florida and the collapse site are in the cone of concern.
“There could be some rainfall, wind and storm surge impacts to South Florida,” said Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie.
The rescue effort was paused for the first time on Wednesday after a shift was detected in the section of the building that remains standing.
Local leaders, however, said they have a contingency plan.
“We’re working closely with the South Florida Water Management district on methods to draw water down,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “We’ve already been doing this over the last several days.”
“We are accustomed to running three or more disasters at the same time,” said Guthrie.
He assured the public that crews are ready for whatever comes this way.
“They stand ready to serve multiple disasters,” said Guthrie.
DeSantis said they are also working on a plan to secure the collapse site.
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