that we're not going to stop until the job is done. >> o'donnell: and that was surfside mayor charles burkett a short time ago. and even as the search for survivors continues tonight, engineers are already searching for clues into what brought the building down. cbs' mark strassmann is looking into this, and, mark, what have you found out? >> reporter: norah, up and down the coast, there are taller and older buildings, but all of them are still standing. so why did this one fall down? buried under a wing of this 12- story luxury condo building, its piles of rubble and twisted steel lies a mystery. what went wrong? >> they are going to have engineers looking at this to try to identify what happened and what was the problematic occurrence. >> reporter: this study from a researcher at florida international university found that the building, constructed 40 years ago on reclaimed wetlands, had been sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters a year for the last three decades. that may also have impacted the building structurally. the town of surfside requires multi-family buildings like this 136-unit prop

but before that the surfside mayor, charles burkett, joins the show later this hour with the scene from where the investigation is underway. >>> the trump organization could be criminally charged in a case the trump attorneys say is tied to tax-related conduct. as for the former president himself, he was back on the trail last night in ohio for a rally for a primary opponent of republican congressman anthony gonzalez who voted to impeach trump on the january 6th insurrection. as is his status quo, the disgraced former president's rambling remarks were littered with lies, with hatred, with racism and fear mongering. it comes as the first member of the oathkeepers has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges relating to the january 6th attack on the capitol. one other member of the extremist group has pleaded guilty to nonconspiracy charges. and so far 16 members of the oath keepers have been charged. following republican opposition and a blockage of a bipartisan independent january 6th commission, house speaker nancy pelosi has agreed that she is creating a select committee to investigate th

charles burkett, the mayor of surfside, florida. and we're following bill cosby. he's getting ready to make a statement. now a representative speaking about this, the district attorney. the pennsylvania supreme court ordered william h. cosby released from prison and now goes free on a procedural issue that is irrelevant to the facts of the crime. this is a statement from kevin steele, the prosecutor in the case. my hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims. prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and whoever it leads. we still believe that no one is above the law including those that are rich, famous and powerful. stay with us. they said it couldn't be done but you managed to pack a record 1.1 trillion transistors into this chip whoo! yeah! oh, hi i invested in invesco qqq a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq 100 like you you don't have to be circuit design engineer to help push progress forward can i hold the chip? become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq with less mo

mayor charles burkett of surfside, florida.houghts are with everyone in the community. >> thank you for your help. ♪ vanessa: we will return to judy woodruff and the full show after the headlines. a moment of reckoning in canada grew even darker. indigenous groups announce investigators have found some 600 graves where a school once stood. the roman catholic church ran the school for indian children in saskatchewan am 1899-1990 seven. last month, two hundred 15 sets of remains were found at a sewer site -- similar site in british colombia. president biden pledge that thousands of interpreters will be evacuated as american forces leave. some 50,000 afghans could be relocated to other countries pending entry to the u.s. it is feared their lives could be in danger once a u.s. withdrawal is completed. the associated press reports the pullout will be largely finished in two weeks, after which roughly 650 troops are expected to remain to provide security for diplomats. speaker of the u.s. house of representatives nancy pelosi has off

i am joined now by the mayor of surfside, charles burkett.een watching you over the last several days since the morning it collapsed. and one of the first things you said when speaking to the public is buildings just don't fall down, like this. they just don't fall down like this. which is why the investigation is so important. can you give us the latest on where that investigation is? >> well, as i've always -- as i've said, repeatedly, you know, as far as i'm concerned, the number-one priority here is pulling these people out of the rubble. and we are going to focus only on that. the second priority is supporting the family. with respect to the investigation, we're -- what we're doing right now. staff. i have directed staff to pull out every scrap of documentation that we have. which includes going to our boxed files in storage. bring them back, scan them, put them on our website and put them out for the world to see. you know, we are going to start to piece together, exactly, what happened. and that will be, you know, there's plenty of tim

i asked the mayor of surfside charles burkett about th urgent rescue effort there. to the extent the crews have now begun to tunnel under the wreckage is there more or less confident about finding survivors? >> you know, lester, i was out there thisg at about and i noticed they had a crew of about 60 guys on top of the pile trying to pull out pieces, hand grabbing it with their hands. but i know that they kept going through it all and the answer to the question is that they're actually going at it from many different directions. top, bottom and side. >> i know just the nature of a pile like that they hear some noises but is there anything that they can identify as human voices >> i haven't been told they have identified human voices that's one thing i haven't been told. >> what do you need in surfside right now >> we are not resource light. we are luck light. we need some luck. >> the mayor of surfside the federal government sending in a team of scientists and engineers to start looking for possible clues on why that building collapsed. sam brock is covering that pa

mayor charles burkett of surf side, florida. thanks very much for joining us, good luck. >>> let's get more on this disaster. joining us now, daiv downey, a retired miami-dade fire rescue chief. and cnn law enforcement analyst, roberto. chief downey, nearly 100 people still unaccounted for right now. so, what is happening? try to explain, to our viewers, how they are trying to find anyone, anyone, who may still be alive under that rubble. >> well, thanks for having me. and -- and, yeah, thanks for the opportunity to explain. and -- and what's happening right now is highly specialized, highly-trained, and experienced rescue workers. that are methodically, and deliberately, conducting a search of the entire-rubble pile. and they're looking for any signs of life. we'll use canines to run the rubble pile and look for sur -- pick up a scent from a survivor. we'll use search cameras and listening devices to be able to -- um -- um -- check for any detection of any survivors in the rubble pile. but this is an arduous process, painstakin

the mayor, charles burkett who is introducing everybody and filling in a few gaps along the way on thede of your screen has said that it was up to 50%. when you look at it up close it is unbelievable how much damage there is and that anyone made it out alive. we do know that more than three dozen people did. some had to be helped off that property, some crawled and were able to run even in instance episcopal to get away from the building which fell last week. previously we heard from the current florida congresswoman debbie waser man schultz. i wanted to make reference to her. i wanted to come back to what you see on the screen because today we know that they have controlled that fire that they were trying to control for days. it was a hot spot and kept reigniting on a floor they needed entry onto and they worked on that all weekend long. there was progress there. the hopeful progress that we would love to tell you about, that they found more survivors, that just isn't happening right now. as they hold this news conference as promised, that's what we've been watching for, to see if tha

. >> charles burkett announcing this morning residents of champlain towers north can evacuate voluntarily, adding he's not aware of any current issues there philip and his wife have lived in the north tower for six years. and he says they're not leaving. >> your building was made by the same builder do you feel safe living there? >> same builder. same architect more or less the same design a little bit different as far as the number of units. so yes, i'm concerned. >> the 2018 report from morabito consultants citing an abunding cracking in various degrees examined in the columns and walls and noted a major structural damage around the pool deck, suggesting it be removed. >> this is not unique in terms of having concrete problems. there was nothing in there that screamed to me, you need to get out of the building. >> but some don't want to wait for answers. monica lives in a building right across the street. >> you see the families of the victims, like, crying in front of your building because now, the families come i don't think it's a good idea it doesn't make sense to me, but i guess th

and the tragedy hit home for surfside mayor charles burkett after a heartbreaking encounter with an 11-year-old girl >> when i came across her, she was sitting in a chair by herself with nobody around her looking at her phone and i knelt down and i asked her, i said, so what are you doing, are you okay? she said yes she was reading a jewish prayer to herself sitting at the site by where one of her parents presumably is. >> mayor burkett says he does plan to look after her and offer her support. for the latest on the search efforts, here's dan scheneman. >> reporter: at the scene of last eek's building collapse, the painstaking search goes on >> as we come across a crevice, as we come across a small void, we continue to focus and continue moving, continue digging through deeper to see if we find anything further >> reporter: crews working 12-hour shifts battling mother nature and shifting rubble >> if the rubble shifts we stop because you can't take a chance of the rubble shifting and harming somebody's life below. >> reporter: while the search continues, so does the wait and the worry.

earlier i spoke to the mayor of surfside, charles burkett, who said everyone was exhausted.ed him what they could offer to the families and friends of the victims. well, you know, we have two goals here. the first goal is that we are going to bring out every person possible, and the second goal is to support the families. we have two meetings a day with the families, where the officials and the search leaders go and they give the family private updates on what's happening. i think there was some relatively uplifting news today for the families in that the israeli search and rescue team arrived and i know that we have a largejewish community, and they were very, very expectantly waiting for that team to arrive to supplement the amazing work that our local search and rescue teams had been doing. at the same time, i mean, i know you know that everyone has to be realistic here and that the chances of surviving after four days of that collapsed building under that rubble are minuscule, i guess? on the contrary. the bbc, the other night, a sent a bbc article the bbc, the other nig

the mayor of surfside, charles burkett, said today that family members had actually asked the israeliponse team that's arrived here, do you believe that officials are doing everything right and everything that they can? and, according to the mayor, the israeli team said absolutely, this is what we would be doing. this is being handled appropriately. and so, they're trying to reassu family members, but again, this kind of waiting as the days go by, it's just the most emotionally destructive thing you can imagine. so much uncertainty. this disaster happened in an instant and now the waiting is playing out over days. >> sreenivasan: so, what are the authorities saying about finding who's responsible for this? >> npr has been looking at this. and, of course, town officials and county officials say that they were unaware of this very troubling engineering report that showed that this structure was in very precarious shape as long as three years ago. what npr has found is that at least one town official was aware of this report and in fact, met with residents. according to minutes from a me

and now the surfside mayor, charles burkett. >> i just have a handful of things i want to share withs at the site and i observed hundreds of search and rescue people actively using their hands, digging out and doing what they're here to do. i also observed the heavy equipment that the governor and the federal government have sent down to us in action, lifting off huge slabs and moving them away from the pile. secondly, i visited with the families again this morning, as did everybody probably standing here, and we heard from the israeli team that is here and one of the things i wanted to note was that the israeli commander told us that

>> so the mayor of surfside, mayor charles burkette, sent their team to take a look at the building and isn't an immediate, emergency need for them to evacuate and leaving it up to them. i'm confident there's a comfort level people can make their own choice. i will tell you, dotted all the way up the coastline with buildings that date back to the '60s, '70s and '80s and need to make sure there's a comprehensive review. federal nist, that's what they'll be doing, taking a deep dive into this, to see whether or not -- the way they decide to open a full investigation is determined by, in part, whether or not we would be making needed changes that would affect condos like this, or construction practices. and building codes all over the nation. so this does have national implications and the review they're doing right now is critical. >> congresswoman debbie wassechlt rman schultz, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you so much. >> we are all standing in solidarity with you and hoping for answers for these families. >> thank you. >> thank you. we'll be here with them every step o

. >> and joining me now on the phone is the mayor of surfside, florida, charles burkett. thank you for joining us. my sympathies to you and your community. i know that you are not far away from the building itself. what is the latest? >> the latest is we have moved and relocated all the residents of that particular building that we were able to get out and we have focused our efforts exclusively on search and rescue. and we've been doing that now for hours and hours. we'll continue to do that until we pull everybody we can out of the rubble. >> unfortunately, i understand the rain isn't helping. >> the rain is really a disaster. we've had a fire and we've had these rainstorms come through and it just -- it is heartbreaking because you have people potentially waiting to be pulled out of the rubble and it just slows everything down. >> how are you balancing that need to have hope versus the real ecism of the enormous odds against the search and rescue efforts? >> i don't know that we can sort of focus on that. i think that it starts with buildings like this don't fall down

surfside florida's mayor, charles burkett has been on the ground and joins me now. thanks for being with us. i know you're busy and you've been on the scene throughout this. thanks for taking a couple minutes. what can you share about your experiences at 3:00 on the east coast today? >> fortunately, you know, we -- fortunately we have unlilted resources. i've been contacted by the white house, speaker pelosi, both u.s. senators. rick scott calls me every day. if you need something, call me. you don't have to call me back. governor desantis, i just met with him twice today. he's offered any assistance that is needed. debbie wasserman schultz and other florida representatives have joined hands. we're all pulling in the same direction. mayor cava has been offering. we have no shortage of resources. we've had a shortage of luck. right now it's raining hard. that doesn't stop the rescue effort, but it does slow it down a bit. that is frustrating. >> martha: i want to ask you about some of these reports. i understand that your priority is the rescue after and the families

surfside mayor charles burkett. >> good morning. i started my day today as i normally do now with a tour of the site. i wanted to respond to the families who have been talking -- asking me questions about the dogs. are the dogs being used? are the dogs active? and i made it a point to visit with several of the handlers and yes, indeed, they are very, very active and we have two sets of dogs there. we have dogs that are looking for people who are alive and we have dogs that are looking for people who have passed on, and they rotate those dogs in and out. an interesting question that came up in our conversation was whether or not the winds and the rain are inhibiting the dogs and the handlers told me no. the dogs are not inhibited. as a matter of fact, they practice and they pick up scents from great distances and the winds actually just -- apparently, the dogs are able to follow the scents to the destination, so that was good. i will tell you this is day seven, i believe, and in all of the days that i've been going to the site three

stephanie: mayor charles burkett said they need answers -- but the more urgent priority is getting toe survivors. mayor burkett: those buildings should have never fallen down. buildings like that don't fall down in america. this is a first world country. that doesn't happen here. there is something very wrong, but that's for another day. today we are going to save lives, that's what we are going to do. stephanie: and for the latest, i'm joined by patricia mazzei, miami bureau chief for the new york times. she's in surfside, florida covering the ongoing search and rescue operation. patricia, thank you for being with us. governor desantis described the scene as "traumatic." you're on the ground -- how would you describe it? patricia: it is devastating to see. you don't expect a building to have half of its apartments sheared off. it looks like an earthquake or a bomb, not the sort of thing you expect to happen, as one survivor put it, just a building. the lady saw the apartment next to her was gone. she said everything up to my apartment was gone. when they left the building, they reali

the mayor of surfside, florida, mayor charles burkett has been kind enough to join us again tonight.k on the pile at 6:00 a.m. so we greatly appreciate it. mr. mayor, i know this episode, amid all the heartbreak, as forced you into the role of researcher in your spare time and you've been looking into other places where souls have been pulled alive against all odds and in terrible wreckage and that must be what gives you hope, the most valuable commodity in your town. >> i've gotten a lot of email over the past five or six days and that one email with the bbc article was the most relevant to me as far as the families go because it outlined the potential for quite a long survival rate underneath the rubble where one woman was pulled off the rubble crying after 17 days. we're not losing hope. we're not slowing down. we're not giving up. we're going to pull everybody out of that rubble and we're hoping and praying for some miracles. we're going to have the president here shortly and i'm going to thank him for providing all of the resources and cutting all of the red tape and i'm going t

joining me is charles burkett, the mayor of survegside. thanks for coming oun. it's difficult situation to i'm sure to deal with these grooesk families. how are youed dealing with this divide where some families want to keep hype live and other families that are essentially looking for closure and they're ready to say let's move in another direction as we deal with this. >> we talked about that specific issue this morning with families. so many skk questions, how long can people survive anne arundel and i had the answer because i had sent it to the mayor couple of days ago. i think it was unclear what that number was but i felt important that nbc has done a study or written a comprehensive article on what happens when buildings collapse and how long people can sur slooif under the rubble. it pointed out a woman from bangladesh who was pulled out after 17 days. as far as i'm concerned, i'm not really interested in discussing stopping the rescue earth at all. >> lets turn to the safety of the site right now. how concerned -- there's been some issues of falling deb

let's turn to the mayor, charles burkett, mayor of surfside mr. from valerie, you know, your heart just bleeds tor these victims. i know some of them are turning toward accountability. you speak with them often, how are they holding up? >> they're desperate for answers. they're in a big hurry, as are we >> mr. mayor, we've heard some of them begin to want real answers. we know in 2018 a consultant outlined what was extensive repairs necessary to ensure the safety of the residents and public the condo association forwarded the inspection report to an official in your city, the surfside building department you said over the weekend you didn't know if any steps were taken to examine these problems further. do you know now? >> no, i don't but i do know i was sent an additional document this morning. actually, i was briefed on it, and then i asked that it be sent to me so i could read it for myself, which, in so many words, was a copy of minutes in that condo for a meeting the board had where that official went to the meeting and told the board that, i

and governor ron desantis, the lieutenant governor in a slew of city officials including mayor charles burkett and you are the last few questions, a couple in spanish, they did not translate into english as they have been going back and forth and doing the same for spanish, but i can tell you that the focus of that last question which was definitely understandable by all was "what about those reports from 2018 that there were structural problems here? and at one point when i reporter was asking in english about that i don't know if you could see it but we could hear it, debbie wasserman schultz began chatting with the mayor in such a way that we could barely hear the rest of the question getting out, this is certainly a point where they need to have transparency and that's exactly what you heard the mayor of surfside say there at the very end, very clearly, we will have transparency in this process. they reiterated that the search and rescue portion of this continues. the search, rescue, and recover continues at that condominium building partial collapse that happened in surfside just outside

with us now is the surfside mayor charles burkett. thank you for your time.ou. can you give our audience today maybe a point of optimism as you look at the pile behind you? >> a little bit. i can tell them that we have one focus and that focus is to bring people out of that rubble alive. we have unlimited resources. we have support from the white house. we have support from our u.s. senators, both of them. we have support from our florida governor. he has been here and we've had support from congress people. we have amazing support from our county. we don't have a resource problem, we have a look problem. we need to stay focused and hope the weather cooperates with us. we have a small fire that keeps breaking out in the basement of the building that we're fighting and we did have some debris that was loose up on top of the building we needed to bring some heavy equipment in to pick off. our first responders and search and rescue teams are constantly eager to get back on the job and are on the job now. that's all we're doing. >> dana: i also heard as you said

we're going to continue to cover this observation after the break with the mayor of surfside, charles burkett with the latest on their investigation into the collapse. >>> later a profile of the couple we found earlier found in the rubble. you'll hear from the husband and grandson of a husband and wife about to celebrate 59 years about to celebrate 59 years together. ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪ ♪uh uh uh♪ ♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪ with allstate, drivers who switched saved over $700. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate click or call to switch today. a lot of people think dealing with copd is allstate a walk in the park. if i have something to help me breathe better, everything will be fun and nice. but i still have bad days flare-ups (coughs), which can permanently damage my lungs. my lungs need protection against flare-ups. so it's time to get real. because in the real world our lungs deserves the real protection of breztri. breztri gives you better breathing symptom improvement, and flare-up protecti

and joining me, now, surfside mayor, charles burkett. mayor, i am so happy that you are here. you so much. absolutely devastating. i am so sorry for what is going on. i know it's a busy time for you. it is a race to find survivors so, please, give us the latest on the search and the rescue efforts. >> it -- that's all we're doing. we're -- we're just searching, 24 hours a day, and we are pulling as many people out as we can. that's the whole goal right now. nothing else matters. >> yeah. are you hopeful more survivors will be rescued, at this point? because it's been 21 hours. but still, enough time -- there hasn't been a lot of time that has passed. there could still be survivors. >> absolutely. we -- we're not giving up. we're, absolutely -- that is the one thing we're not doing. we've got hundreds of people at our community center. this is like a missing airplane. they want to know where their loved ones are, and we have a duty to make sure that we do everything, in our power, to find them. we have got the resources. we have no problem with resources. we just have a problem

joining us, charles burkett, mayor of surfside, florida. i understand there will be a briefing for the news media coming up soon? >> yes, we've been doing about two a day for the families. we had one for the families that was pretty emotional. we had -- i wouldn't say good news for them but we had supportive news for them in that the israeli search and rescue team had arrived, and i think that made a lot of those folks in that room feel a lot better. we also have a mexican team arriving i think it's tomorrow. so we have a full complement of very experienced search and rescue people. we have waves of them going over that rubble pile right now. >> it's still nine confirmed dead, right? >> i'm not really focusing on that. what i'm focusing on is the fact that we want to keep maximum pressure, maximum staffing, maximum rescue people on that mound looking for people to pull them out alive. >> do you still have hope? >> i expect miracles. i'm expecting many miracles. >> because, you know -- >> as a matter of fact i want to just remind you that i

now the surfside mayor charles burkett. >> good morning. i would just like to add a few things. i walked the site this morning and tell you what i saw. we had, overnight there were issues with debris falling off the building. the west side of the pile had to be cordoned off a little bit because it was becoming excessively dangerous to work there. what has happened is i understand the work still continues from the sides and underneath, but that area was cordoned off until they can sort of get their arms around the debris that's falling down, and they've made very good progress on the east end and it's apparent. they've got the pile down to the point where you can see into the parking lot. so there is great progress. lastly, with respect to the site, there is an overwhelming amount of workers, rescue workers on the site working with cranes and taking off debris and the work continues. i attended the family meeting this morning. it was -- it was informative. the israelis had announced that they were going to be bringing in additional workers which made the families -- rescue worker

and now the surfside mayor, charles burkett. >> i just have a handful of things i want to share with you. first, this morning i was at the site and i observed hundreds of search and rescue people actively using their hands, digging out and doing what they're here to do. i also observed the heavy equipment that the governor and the federal government have sent down to us in action, lifting off huge slabs and moving them away from the pile. secondly, i visited with the families again this morning, as did everybody probably standing here, and we heard from the israeli team that is here and one of the things i wanted to note was that the israeli commander told us that the teams that are out there working are working fabulously together. there's a joint effort. there's a camaraderie, and everybody has the same goal, and that's to pull people out of there. he also added that the intensity and the numbers will continue to increase, which i was very interested to hear. thirdly, i want to make everybody aware that there has been some discussion about why this happened and that is, as the mayo

surfside's mayor, charles burkett, promised to get to the bottom of it. >> we directed our staff to go and scan every shred of documentation that the town of surfside has. the number one priority today is to rescue people out of that rubble. number two is to support the famies. we will get to that. just know that is in the works anwe will be 100% transparent. amna: while rescue teams have been searching the rubble for the better part of five days, hope is fading for many of the families gathered in southern florida. i'm joined now by mayor gabriel groisman of bal harbour, florida. he has been at the site of the scene for several days, speaking to search-and-rescue teams and spending time with the families of victims. mr. mayor, thank you so much for making the time to be with us. we should note you have a connection to that building. it used to be your home years ago. what has it been like for you to see it in this state right now? mayor groisman: it has been horrendous, like it has been for everybody. i grew up in that building in the 1980's, my home in south first florida. but, more

. >> mayor charles burkette, thank you for joining us. your communication is so helpful to us and the community. >> the names of all 11 victims have been released. they range in age from 26 to 82. they include a father of two and a mother whose 15-year-old son was pulled from the rubble alive. last night a beach side vigil was held to remember the victims and pray for those still unaccounted for. one man whose mother and grandmother are still among the 150 missing is holding out hope and demanding accountability. >> it's shocking that they allowed it to get into this. it's negligence and their negligence caused a lot of death here. it's very difficult not knowing and really the only hope i have is that they find them, we can have some kind of proper burial, some kind of closure, and hope that they investigate this and the people responsible are held to be responsible, they're held to be accountable. >> we are also hearing incredible stories of survival, a twist of fate that saved lives of the residents who might very well have died in thu

joining me now is the mayor of surfside, florida charles burkett. mr.ut i want to ask about residents of the other tower. this building consisted of another tower. if you were living in that tower right now, would you leave? would you advise them to get out? >> well, listen, i think you're talking about a separate building, and it's a block away. but it's essentially the same building built by the same developer, presumably the same plans, presumably the same materials. so we had some pretty serious concerns given that this building just fell down for no apparent reason. we sent our building officials in there, both -- we hired an expert structural inspector and our building official went in there as a cursory walk-through just to give us a heads-up on what we were looking at. and they came out and basically told me in so many words that there wasn't anything in that particular building that jumped out at them as super dangerous. however, having said that, today i believe the federal government's structure agency, naist or -- nist, i think it's called.

charles burkett is the mayor of surfside. he's joining us right now. we've standing by for another briefing from the authorities. could you update our viewers on the latest information involving the search and the all important search and rescue operations. >> first thing i do every morning is i talk to the guys doing the work. we got -- we've got at least 240 men and women on the pile right now, hand picking that stuff out. we have got cranes, we have gigantic cranes lifting off huge slabs. the governor has provided infrastructure, the senators have worked to do -- we don't have, we don't have a resource problem, we have a luck problem. we have to get lucky and start finding people and pulling them out. >> you still have hope. >> i absolutely have hope and i'm expecting some miracles. >> we're hoping for miracles, with each day -- >> i think we're at the beginning. i think there was a bbc article that i was sent that outlined survival rates in building collapses. and it outlined that people have survived up to 17 days and maybe more. so, given that it

i want to bring in now mayor charles burkett of surfside, florida. mayor, thank you so much. are you doing? >> happy to be here. a little tired. >> i can only imagine. again, appreciate you're here. rescue teams are painstakingly searching through the rubble and yet the total number of people unaccounted for still remains high at 149. doesn't mean 149 people are there. just unaccounted for. we don't know if they were in the building at the time. we just don't know. we're at the end of six days of day six, you say no one is giving up hope but are you worried, though, it may be false hope for these families after so many days? >> i'm not really worried it would be false hope. i think we have an obligation and a duty to do everything we possibly can to bring those people out of the rubble and reunite them with their family, and i think that you know, sort of wringing our hands about whether that's right or wrong, i think that's not productive. i think the only thing to do is to focus on bringing them out now and focus on that for the next day and the next day and next day until

we'll be watching from afar, mayor charles burkett of surfside, florida, our thanks. we'll have an update on this still-developing disaster later in this hour. >>> for now, though, we want to turn our focus to washington and a rare sight today, a smiling president and ten senators from both parties emerging in the white house driveway to announce their agreement on a bipartisan infrastructure plan. >> we have a deal. and i think it's really important. we've all agreed that none of us got what we all wanted. this reminds me of the days we used to get an awful lot done in the united states congress. we actually worked with people. we got bipartisan deals. >> the plan will cost just over $1 trillion to be spent over eight years' time. there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome. the president and top democrats warning the agreement will only move forward if it's paired with a much larger package of spending and tax increases, which republicans say they will never agree to. >> i expect -- i expect that in the coming months this summer before the fiscal year is over that

i want to let you hear, though, from the surfside mayor, charles burkett, who just spoke here this afternoonause this is still a very active scene at the site of that devastation. i want to let you hear about the current situation. take a listen. >> and we need to get the fire put out. we've got a nasty fire going on inside, deep inside the rubble, you know, probably coming from cars underneath that were crushed and leaked fluid. the fire department is on it, they check for dangerous gases, so that fortunately we're not seeing those dangerous explosive gases and our waves of search and rescue crews continue to dig the victims out. that's all we're going to do today. we're going to dig the victims out. >> reporter: meanwhile, yasmin, in the meanwhile families, friends, neighbors of those 159 unaccounted for individuals are awaiting. this is the new rehabilitation -- sorry -- reunification center here. we are about a mile down the road here where families are staying at this hotel and getting private updates. the family of pablo rodriguez, multiple members of his family are missing. i want to

mayor charles burkett said he does believe there are people buried, the building has literally pancaked. it has gone down, and i mean there's just feet in between. stories where there were 10 ft. uh, that is, uh, is heartbreaking because it does it mean to me. we're going to be successful as successful as we would want to be to find people alive. i'm elissa harrington ktvu, fox two news. new at noon with gun violence on the rise in alameda county community leaders are calling on local officials to take action. the community leaders gathered just a few minutes ago at the lake merritt amphitheater where deadly shooting happened just this past saturday. now they are calling for gun violence to be declared a public health emergency by alameda county and by the city of oakland. they say they want $100 million to be invested back into black communities where gun violence hits the hardest. we know that the government alone cannot save us they cannot pretend picked us. we are asking for a commitment of resources so that our community can put into place the strategies that we know will work that

surfside mayor charles burkett. >> i started my day today as i normally do now with a tour of the sitehe families who have been talking and asking me questions about the dogs, are the dogs being used and active? i made it a point to visit with several of the handlers and yes, indeed, they are very, very active and we have two sets of dogs there. we have dogs that are looking for people who are alive and we have dogs that are looking for people who have passed on. and they rotate those dogs in and out. an interesting question that came up in our conversation was whether or not the wind and the rain are inhibiting the dogs and the handlers told me no, the dogs are not inhibited. as a matter of fact, they practice and pick up scents from great distances and the winds actually just -- apparently the dogs are able to follow the scent to the destination so that was good. i will tell you, this is day seven, i believe. in all the days that i've been going to the site three times a day i have never seen as many assets in place on that site. we have got heavy, heavy equipment and it is actively

late-last night, cnn spoke with surfside mayor, charles burkett. >> we did have a couple hits. we've had hits during the day. we pulled a little boy out. we pulled his mother out, i think. it's -- it's very touch and go. it's raining, now, which complicates the issue. and it -- that -- that is upsetting me, because it's gonna, inevitably slow down the process. in the united states, buildings don't just fall down like this. there is a reason for that. we have got to get to the reason and we have got to understand what happened here because this is not normal. but today's not the day for that. today is the day to try to save as many people as we can. there will be a time for that. and as soon as that time comes, we will be on that, like you can't believe. >> we're back here in surfside. and i am joined now by jeffrey rose. thank you for joining us. you're -- you're a general contractor. you have actually done work in this building. >> i've done some interior renovations. my parents own a unit in the building. they left last week. they've been here many times. they lived here for

surfside mayor charles burkett says he does not believe that contributed to the collapse.at they are going to have engineers looking at this to try to identify what would what happened, you're going to have those answers immediately, but i know that they are diligently going to be working to be able to do that. president biden called the mayor of miami dade and offered full federal support. in surfside. steve harrigan fox news. there are increasing concerns tonight from customs agents in texas, about a surgeon nighttime border crossings. box news alex hogan is at the border in texas with a firsthand look at the enforcement efforts going on there. day in day out in the rio grande valley agents watching the border no. the treacherous summer days will only bring out more people by nightfall overnight, hundreds of migrants tried relying on the near full moon in the faint glow of city lights, but couldn't find their way to divide me. there's a large group coming out of that area. traveling by night, many in this group got lost in the darkness needing to call, 911 and police sou

surfside mayor charles burkett says he encountered a little girl praying near the site. one of her parents is missing. she didn't know what to do what to say wouldn't talk to rescue teams are using heavy machinery to remove large slabs of concrete underground. sonar and canine crews are also being used. search and rescue crews are working 12 hour shifts in hopes of finding any pockets in the wreckage. and any survivors. we're going to continue and work ceaselessly to exhaust every possible option in our search over the weekend, the city of surfside released a 2018 engineering report, warning of major structural damage to the building. an engineer who conducted the inspection identify cracks in support columns. as well as a waterproof failure that could potentially damaged concrete above an underground parking garage. florida governor rhonda stances saying this about an investigation. we pledge at the state if they need support from engineers from experts, whatever we need, whether it's surfside, miami dade, we're here to help surfside officials say engineers will begin o

but before that the surfside mayor, charles burkett, joins the show later this hour with the scene fromsay is tied to tax-related conduct. as for the former president himself, he was back on the trail last night in ohio for a rally for a primary opponent of republican congressman anthony gonzalez who voted to impeach trump on the january 6th insurrection. as is his status quo, the disgraced former president's

potentially -- >> harris: emily, i'm going to cut in because we have the mayor of surfside florida, charles burkett is with us, we need to ask you a few questions, mayor, can you hear us? my first question for you has to do with what is going on right now, the rescue efforts are underway but that's been really complicated, just bring us up to speed. >> we got the call at about 2:00 this morning and we came out and we've got a modern building that just collapsed. a large modern building, 12 stories, 130 unit condominium on the ocean just collapsed, it looks like there was an earthquake, it's inexplicable and we are all scratching our heads trying to figure out what the problem is. that air conditioning work on the top, that is an everyday occurrence. we've got a tragedy here that's beyond any of our imagination. we've got 15 families out this morning in the middle of the night, we've got third or more of the building that collapsed like a pancake that i don't even want to think about what we'd find in that area. >> harris: i'm curious, when you say 15 families got out, were people in those upper flo

people, families of the missing or holding out hope more survivors will be found, surfside mayor charles burkett says he encountered a little girl praying near the site where one of her parents is missing. she didn't know what to do what to say to talk to rescue teams are using heavy machinery to remove large slabs of concrete. and canine crews are also being used. search and rescue crews are working 12 hour shifts in hopes of finding any pockets in the wreckage and any survivors. we'reng to continue and work ceaselessly to exhaust every possible option in our search over the weekend, the city of surfside released a 2018 engineering report. warning of major structural damage to the building. an engineer who conducted the inspection identify cracks in support columns as well as a waterproof failure that could potentially damaged concrete above an underground parking garage. florida governor rhonda sanchez, saying this about an investigation. we pledge at the state if they need support from engineers from experts, whatever we need, whether it's surfside, miami dade, we're here to help surfside off

surfside, charles burkett. mayor burkett, thank you so much for joining us. about the surrounding buildings there at surfside. >> absolutely. i think that, you know, there's a serious problem, buildings don't fall down in america. that's a third-world phenomenon, not something that happens in the united states. there was something seriously, seriously wrong here. and we're going to find out what it is. that's not going to be today. today we're going to be trying to pull people alive out of that rubble. >> mayor, we heard from the fire marshal a short time ago who described the building as incredibly compromised. we know that the search and rescue teams are working in a very dangerous condition -- very dangerous conditions. what can you tell us about the status of the search and rescue right now? >> well, i was just there. i ran over to speak with you. we do have -- it's heartbreaking because we have a small fire somewhere underneath the building. and we've been working on that for a couple days now. we've got rain that's been sort of passing over and making t