‘TROUGHS OF DISBELIEF’

Woman Missing in Miami Beach Condo Disaster Had Been Woken by ‘Creaking’ Building, Says Son

A woman who is among the 159 still missing after the Surfside apartment block collapse had been woken up by “creaking” sounds the previous night, her son says.

A woman missing after the Surfside apartment block collapse had been woken up by “creaking noises” the previous night, according to her son. Pablo Rodriguez, whose mother and grandmother are both unaccounted for after Thursday’s disaster, said his mother had called him on Wednesday. “She just told me she had woken up around 3, 4 in the morning and had heard like some creaking noises,” Rodriguez told CNN. “They were loud enough to wake her.” He said it seemed like an offhand comment, but added: “Now, in hindsight, you always wonder.” At least 99 people are missing after the collapse of the Champlain Towers complex, which had been experiencing structural “issues” for years. Asked how he was handling his emotions, Rodriguez said: “It’s waves of devastation with troughs of disbelief... This doesn’t happen. Buildings don’t just collapse. It’s not real.” On Friday morning, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed that at least four people died in the disaster.