Audio from 911 calls from the deadly Surfside Condo Collapse in Miami that were released Wednesday reveals panic and chaos as bystanders plead with rescue officials to hurry to the scene where “people [were] in the rubble yelling.”
“There’s people yelling, saying they’re stuck, on the part of the building that collapsed, they keep yelling,” an unidentified caller can be heard saying in the audio, which was obtained by the Miami Herald. “There’s people in the rubble yelling.”
Authorities confirmed at least one woman pleaded for “several hours” to be rescued from the rubble but rescuers were unable to reach her in time.
The caller then explained to the dispatcher he and about eight or nine other people tried to evacuate the building through the garage but it was flooded so they had to go back upstairs.
Other terrified residents told dispatchers they were also trapped, with one female caller telling the dispatcher she lived in the other half of the condo but was stuck in her apartment because “half the building is gone!”
“Holy shit! ” one individual can be heard screaming in a 911 call. “You gotta get out! Hurry up, hurry up! There’s a big explosion!” The caller goes on to tell the dispatcher there was a “lot of smoke” and he could hardly see. (RELATED: Firefighter Finds His Own Daughter’s Body In Collapsed Surfside Condo)
A call that came in just two minutes later captures a woman in apparent shock, repeatedly saying “oh my God, oh my God.”
Another caller emotionally tells dispatch the building just collapsed into a “sinkhole” and that there “will be many, many people dead.”
At least 97 people died in the collapse, but dozens are still unaccounted for. Florida officials told families still searching for loved ones that the search and rescue mission would turn into a search and recovery mission, saying there was a “zero chance” of survival.