MIAMI (WSVN) - Local residents gathered across South Florida to mourn the victims killed by a roof collapse at a nightclub in the Dominican Republic.
South Floridians held a vigil at Juan Pablo Duarte Park in Miami Wednesday night to pray for families in the Dominican Republic.
“It really hurts, cause we’re a really close country, we’re always there for each other,” Diana Mejin, who attended the vigil, said.
“I have cried for two days already since I found out what happened,” Eduardo Mallen, who lost friends in the roof collapse including former Major League Baseball player Octavio Dotel, said.
Many of South Florida’s Dominican community came together to show support for each other and for the victims, united by pride in their country and the pain for their people.
“It’s been really hard for me, I mean my family supported me, you know it’s hard, it’s sad,” Mallen said.
The roof of the well-known Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo collapsed early Tuesday morning killing at least 124 people and injuring hundreds of others.
“You cannot imagine just the weight of something falling like that and just so quickly, you know and all those poor people having a good time,” Marisol Zenteno said at the vigil.
“I’ve been very sad since yesterday,” Loyda Bello said.
Bello is the owner of the Coffee Nail Bar, one of several Dominican-run businesses along Northwest 36 Street in Allapattah.
“Since this happened, we’ve been worried about those families who are left behind,” she said.
Others in South Florida were left heartbroken after learning friends were killed in the tragic collapse.
Rafael Gutierrez told 7News in Spanish that he feels very sad for his country. He said one of his friends was confirmed to have died while two others are still missing. He also said he’s still in shock after hearing about the collapse and hopes more survivors will be found.
The collapse happened during a merengue orchestra performance by singer Rubby Pérez, who officials confirmed to be among the victims killed.
“I share the sentiment being Dominican myself of the huge loss to the music community and that he was a big voice in merengue, but separately all the lives that were lost both small and large, that night,” Karla Maria Cabral, who also attended the vigil, said.
“You see the people dancing and having fun, and then everything changed,” Zenteno said.
Luis De La Cruz, owner of Club Tipico Dominicano, knew Perez and said his loss is tremendous.
“He was a great, great guy. Family guy, he was a great singer. Great, great man,” he said.
Also among the victims — former MLB players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco along with musicians and government officials.
First responders have worked around the clock searching for more survivors buried in the rubble. So far, more than 150 people have been rescued.
It’s still unclear what caused the roof to collapse.
Those at the vigil said they hope there are more survivors and they are leaving that up to their faith.
Corpus Christi Catholic Church will be holding a mass on Thursday at 7 p.m. to honor all the victims in the roof collapse.
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